Three FC personnel martyred in North Waziristan IED explosion

ISLAMABAD: Three Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel were martyred in an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in North Waziristan’s Ghulam Khan area on Sunday.

According to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the explosive device went off at a time when the FC bomb disposal team was undertaking a routine search and clear operation near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The martyred FC personnel were identified as Naik Inayatullah Khattak, Sepoy Mohsin Ali Turi and Sepoy Sifatullah.

The army’s media wing said that Pakistan was paying the price due to the lack of capacity-building within the Afghan armed forces and ungoverned spaces on the Afghan side of the border.

Earlier in December, two Pakistan Army soldiers were martyred in a terrorist attack in North Waziristan Agency. Second Lieutenant Abdul Moeed and Sepoy Basharat were martyred after terrorists opened fire on their vehicle from the surrounding mountains.

President Mamnoon Hussain, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and defence minister condemned the cowardly attack while praising the bravery of troops who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty.

Meanwhile, a hand grenade explosion injured seven children, including five girls, in Lower Aurakzai Agency on Sunday, political authorities said.

The children were playing with a supposedly wasted hand grenade that they had brought inside their house from a nearby field, when it exploded suddenly, thus injuring at least seven children in Utmankhel area of Lower Aurakzai Agency, bordering Afghanistan.

The condition of the injured children was stated to be out of danger. The injured were shifted to Kalaya Agency headquarters hospital.

The injured were identified as Ataur Rehman, Fazlur Rehman, Haseena Bibi, Mir Shad Bibi, Razma Bibi and Aafia Bibi. Name of one child could not be ascertained.