Three Pakistani girls killed in landmine blast
Three Pakistani girls were killed by a landmine explosion on Monday in a trouble-plagued region on the border with Afghanistan, a government official said.
Three Pakistani girls were killed by a landmine explosion on Monday in a trouble-plagued region on the border with Afghanistan, a government official said.
The girls were killed while fetching water in the Bajaur tribal region, where government forces have been trying to apprehend terrorists, including al Qaeda members.
A government officer in the region, Mamoor Khan, said the mine was recently planted, not left over from decades of conflict along the border.
"We have no idea who planted the landmine. We are investigating," Khan said in the region's main town, Khar.
Pakistani forces have been trying to root out terrorists who fled to the lawless border region after US and Afghan opposition forces ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in late 2001.
In a separate incident on the long, porous border, a bomb went off on a road as a convoy of paramilitary forces was passing in the North Waziristan region, a government official said.
There were no casualties or damage, he said.
