Sixteen people, including six children, were killed and 12 others injured when a wedding party was targeted with a remote-controlled bomb in the militancy-hit Swat valley on Friday.
Police officials said the wedding party was heading for Dorkat village from the adjacent Ochray village in the troubled Matta sub-division when unidentified miscreants attacked it with an improvised explosive device, commonly known as IEDs.
There were reports that the bride was also killed in the blast, but it could not be confirmed, as there was chaos in the town after the incident. Eyewitness told ‘The News’ that a Pakistan Army convoy had just passed through the area. It is believed that the militants might have planted the explosive device to target the security forces.
The troops now use jammers whenever they move from one place to another, which helps avoid losses, a journalist in the area claimed. Soon after the incident, the bomb disposal squad reached the site and recovered another bomb weighing 10 kilograms.
Local residents said a double-cabin pick-up truck in which mostly women and children were traveling was badly damaged. They said 14 people, mostly children, died on the spot while two others succumbed to injuries on their way to hospital. Two other vehicles, which were part of the wedding procession, were also damaged. The authorities were clueless about the group behind the gruesome incident.
According to the Mingora-based Media Centre, where military authorities briefed the media about military operations against the Maulana Fazlullah-led militants, 12 people had died and 13 were injured in the blast.
A report issued by the centre said those killed included six children, four men and a woman. Some of those killed in the blast were identified as Sher Rahman, Arsala Khan, Noor Mohammad, Khanzada, Yasmin, Parveen, Maryam, Shamshad and Rubina.
Local residents said some of the injured were immediately rushed to the nearby Pakistan Army’s relief camp in Venay area while others were taken to the distant hospital in Saidu Sharif.
The wounded admitted to Saidu Sharif hospital included Zarsanga, Habibur Rahman, Imam Hussain, Ismail and Fehmida. It was the first time that a wedding party was targeted in the picturesque but militancy-stricken Swat valley. The incident was widely condemned in the area and across the province. It was the first incident of its kind in the area after the February 18 general elections.