Forty-three members of the Ali Khel tribe were killed and scores of others injured, many of them seriously, when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden pick-up truck into a Jirga in Hadeezai area of the Orakzai tribal agency on Friday afternoon.
Official and tribal sources said the death toll could mount as many of the injured shifted to various hospitals in Orakzai, Hangu and Kohat were in a critical condition. The victims also included children.
The government opened the Kohat Tunnel and the Kotal Pass, which usually remain closed during the night due to terrorist attacks, so that the seriously injured could be shifted to Peshawar.
Eyewitnesses told The News from Ghiljo, the Tehsil headquarters of the Orakzai Agency, that over 2,000 tribesmen of the Ali Khel tribe were holding a Jirga when a young suicide bomber, driving an explosives-packed pick-up truck, entered there and blew himself up.
The Ali Khel tribe, which had raised an armed tribal Lashkar against the Taliban militants and destroyed two of their training centres in Hadeezai and Kronz villages of Orakzai Agency, had convened the grand Jirga for future line of action against the militants.
One of the witnesses, Meraj Gul, who shifted his two injured brothers to the District Headquarters Hospital, Kohat, told The News by telephone that he saw several bodies on the ground after the blast. He said over 200 people were injured and were crying for help.
He said the Jirga had just started its proceedings and tribal elders, including Haji Sabeel, Subedar Qadir Shah, Maulana Surat Gul and Dost Ali Khan, were informing the Jirga members about their successes and future strategy when the suicide bomber carried out the attack.
Except for Haji Sabeel, who was leading the Jirga, all the remaining tribal chieftains lost their lives in the attack. The sources said the Ali Khel tribal Lashkar had destroyed two main centres of Taliban and announced to set on fire more of their hideouts in Dabori, Hadeezai and Ghiljo.
Also, the Lashkar had announced to burn Taliban’s houses and those who rented out their buildings to them. The Lashkar on Thursday imposed Rs 300,000 fine on one of Taliban’s supporters, Hafiz Mohammad Aziz for helping the militants in the area.
A senior official of the political administration based in Ghiljo said 35 people died on the spot and more than one hundred sustained serious injuries. Pleading anonymity, the official said majority of the people died due to lack of transportation for shifting the injured to health centres.
Around 40 injured were shifted to a private medical centre, Babul Madeena, and the Agency Headquarters Hospital of Ghiljo, where majority of them were stated to be in critical condition. Despite being an Agency Headquarters Hospital, tribal sources said there was only one doctor for the entire population of the Ghiljo Tehsil.
The injured were seen writhing in verandas and on lawns of the hospital due to lack of facilities. Some of the seriously-injured people were later sent to the district headquarter hospitals in Hangu and Kohat, where the government had already declared an emergency.
Ambulances were sent from Kohat and Hangu districts to shift the injured to hospitals, but majority of the tribesmen were reported to have hired private vehicles for shifting their near and dear ones to health centres.Sources in Hangu hospital said 60 injured were taken there where five of them succumbed to their injuries.
Doctors in Kohat hospital said they had so far received 25 people among which three had already expired on their way to hospital. The doctors said majority of the injured brought to them were elderly people and had sustained serious injuries.
Some of the people died in the blast were identified as Surat Khan, Abdullah, Khadiullah, Saleh Khan, Mahboob Khan, Dost Mohammad Khan, Major Khan, Moeen Khan, Askar, Abdur Rahman, Jalil Khan, Maulana Surat Gul, Masnak Khan, Abdur Rahman, Nazar Khan, Sabir Shah, Retired Subedar Qadir Khan, Sabeel Khan, Momin Khan, Talib Jan, Mastak Khan, Kamal Shah and Eed Rahman.