PESHAWAR
by Aamir Latif
At least nine people. including three children. were killed and 20 were injured in an explosion in house of an arms dealer in far-flung Tirah valley nearPakistan-Afghan border, officials and local sources said.
The explosion occurred in the “Hujra” (drawing room) of the house where, according to local administration, weapons and explosive material were dumped.
Hakeem Khan Akakhel, the arms dealer, his three children, and three suspected arms buyers were among the dead.
“It was a huge explosion. It seemed if the skies had fallen on the earth”, Gul Raheem, a local resident told the Anadolu Agency (AA) by telephone.
“The blast reduced the entire house to rubble and damaged the nearby buildings”, Raheem added.
He confirmed that the house owner was a known arms dealer, and used to dump weapons in his Hujra. However, he said, he had no idea about dumping of explosive material in the house.
Rescue workers took hours to reach the site in mountainous terrain, some 70 kilometers away form Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhawa province.
Local residents, Gul said, shifted the injured and bodies to the hospital in private vehicles.
Tirah valley is located on Pak-Afghan border, and a bastion of Taliban militants. The army has been clearing the area of militants for the last five years, and claimed to have retrieved a large portion of the troubled area.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
