MIRANSHAH, Pakistan – Four children and their parents were killed in a grenade blast in Pakistan’s restive northwest yesterday, a day after 12 children were killed by a bomb hidden in a football.
Violence has increased in the region as Taliban fighters extend their reach. Western allies, needing Pakistan’s help to defeat al-Qaeda and stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan, fear the country could slide into chaos.
Pakistan’s interior ministry chief Rehman Malik blamed the Taliban for Saturday’s football bomb. “The Taliban have exposed their real face by killing innocent children,” Mr Malik said.
Authorities were unsure who to blame for yesterday’s grenade attack as they were uncertain whether the parents were carrying the grenade, or if it was planted in the car they were travelling in with their eight children.
The grenade exploded in the car near Datta Kheil, a district in the North Waziristan tribal region, near the Afghan border.
“The parents and four of their children died instantly and their bodies were brought to hospital,” Mirbad Khan, a hospital official in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, said.
“Four other children were wounded.” North Waziristan is a known sanctuary for al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
The football bomb attack that killed 12 children occurred 260km (162 miles) further to the northeast, at a village in the mountains of Lower Dir. The children, five of them girls, found the ball as they were returning from school. Seven victims belonged to the same family.
Mr Malik said investigators would check whether the children were targeted because their families had refused to let the Taliban take them for training, including as suicide attackers.
He also appealed to parents across North West Frontier Province to stop children accepting food or toys from strangers. – (Reuters)