On Saturday, a convoy of security forces and employees of the Marri Petroleum Company were traveling from North Waziristan to Bannu when they were suddenly attacked in the Khajori area of Mir Ali sub-division in North Waziristan district. Local officials said, “A rickshaw was parked on the roadside in the middle of parked vehicles when it suddenly appeared and struck a vehicle of the security forces.” The banned group Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Inter-Services Public Relations released a statement on Sunday, announcing that “one soldier was martyred and 14 other people were injured in the attack.” The local official said, “The area was cordoned off immediately after the explosion and the injured persons were airlifted to Bannu’s Combined Military Hospital. Two among the injured persons were in critical condition.”
This is not the first time that a convoy of security forces has been targeted in the region. On December 15, a similar incident took place in Sargardan area, where a suicide bomber on a motorbike targeted the convoy, leaving “three civilians dead and 14 others, including nine security personnel, wounded.”
In another incident in the mountainous area of the Central Kurram, a man was killed and another was critically injured in the explosion of an old and rusted mortar shell at Sara Tara locality. According to reports, “a team of Rescue 1122 rushed to the spot and shifted [the injured men] to Ghaljo Mela hospital in Orakzai, wherein one of them died.”
