Peshawar: Three children were killed when a
bomb exploded today in a village in northwest Pakistan, a
police official said, blaming Islamist militants for planting
the device in the restive area.
The timed bomb went off in a remote village in
mountainous Dir district, where Pakistan's military last year
embarked on an offensive to drive out Taliban militants who
had taken over pockets of the area.
"Three children were killed on the spot. Apparently it is
an act of terrorism. The militants want to create fear and
terrify the residents," district police chief Raoof Khan told
news agencies.
He said the three boys -- two brothers and their cousin
aged between eight and twelve -- were killed as they grazed
their families' goats in the area, about 240 kilometres (150
miles) north of regional capital Peshawar.
In a similar incident earlier this month in northwest
Tank district, one boy was killed and five other children
wounded when the youngsters mistook a mine for a football and
began playing with it, causing it to explode.
It was unclear in that incident if the bomb was planted
by militants or unexploded ordnance inadvertently imported
from Afghanistan as scrap metal.
More than 2,900 people have been killed since July 2007
in attacks across Pakistan, most blamed on the Taliban, and
suicide blasts and other attacks are increasingly targeting
civilians, with children often the victims.
-PTI
First Published: Thursday, January 28, 2010, 00:46