Six children killed, one hurt while playing with grenade in Peshawar

Six children killed, one hurt while playing with grenade in Peshawar

PESHAWAR Six children from one family were killed and one was injured on Sunday while playing with a hand grenade in northwest Pakistan, officials said. The children, aged five to 12, were playing near their house in the town of Hangu when the grenade exploded, local police official Hussain Badshah said. “Five boys and one girl were killed in the blast. One other child was injured,” said Iftikhar Ahmed, the district police chief. Syed Ahmed Jan, a senior local administration official, added: “The children were playing with a hand grenade they found on nearby open ground.” Badshah said the girl and three of the boys were siblings, while the two other boys were their cousins. Officials said eyewitnesses had told them that the children found the toy-like bomb in a field and were playing with it when it exploded, killing five boys on the spot. One girl later died at the hospital while another boy is being treated for injuries. The DPO said the house of the individual Fazl Gul is being searched for a possible terror link and have started an investigation into the incident. The family had migrated from the neighbouring Orakzai tribal agency where the military is battling the Taliban. The police in charge of the area Taj Muhammad, while quoting the bomb disposal squad officials, said that it was a hand grenade bomb which caused the death of the six children. Hangu itself is regularly targeted by militants. A Pakistani schoolboy from a nearby village sacrificed his life to stop a suicide bomber, saving the lives of his classmates earlier this month.  The Pakistani Taliban have since 2007 waged a war against the state, intended to force the government to scrap its alliance with the US and to impose the militants’ brand of Sharia law.