Miranshah: 3 soldiers killed in NWA IED blast

MIRANSHAH: The security forces here Tuesday blew up a three-storey private hospital building owned by the lone Member of the National Assembly from North Waziristan Kamran Khan and his father Dr Zakeem Khan.

Tribal sources said the hospital building located on the Miranshah-Dattakhel road was razed to the ground after unknown people attacked a military convoy with an improvised explosive device (IED), killing three soldiers and injuring 16 others.

The military convoy had just left the heavily-guarded Miranshah army camp and was on its way to Dattakhel near the border with Afghanistan when it came under attack near Miranshah bazaar.

The authorities had already clamped curfew on the Miranshah-Dattakhel road for security of the military convoy and directed the tribespeople to stay away from the roadside.

The sources said unknown people had planted the IED on the road near the hospital building. The security officials believed someone hiding in the hospital had triggered the explosive device.

Three soldiers, two of them belonging to the Tochi Scouts, a wing of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC), and another from the Pakistan Army, died on the spot and 16 soldiers, all from the army, sustained injuries when their truck was hit by the roadside IED. The security forces immediately opened indiscriminate fire and launched search operation in the area. The soldiers also found two more IEDs planted in the same area on the roadside.

The military convoy could not depart for the remote Dattakhel area and was sent back to the army camp in Miranshah. The troops earlier deployed on the road for protection of the military convoy later besieged the hospital building.

The hospital building was thoroughly searched and the troops took the patients and medical staff into custody. The patients and their attendants were later released but three members of the hospital staff were shifted to an unknown place.

Later in the evening, the security forces planted explosives around the walls of the hospital building and blew up the structure. The building was razed to the ground. The destruction of the hospital shocked the tribespeople living in the area. The tribesmen said they heard a huge blast and then saw heavy dust in the area. Though no group took responsibility for the latest attack on the Pakistan Army, tribesmen in Miranshah said it had created tension not only in Miranshah but the whole of North Waziristan.

The original article can be found at The News.

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