Six kids among 26 killed in Pakistan attacks

Islamabad, July 21 (IANS) At least 26 people, including six children and a polio eradication worker with the World Health Organisation (WHO), were killed in separate attacks launched by militants across Pakistan.

Nine people, including five children, died Saturday when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a house used as headquarters by a militant outfit in the northwest tribal region.

The attack took place around 1 p.m. at the headquarters of the group led by Maulana Nabi Hanfi in Speen Tall area of Kurram region in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Xinhua reported citing state-run PTV channel.

The five children were passing by the site after attending school when the blast occurred. The other four dead were militants.

At least 15 people were injured in the bombing.

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No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but Xinhua said it may have been because of an internal conflict between two militant groups led by Maulana Hafiz Ziaur Rehman and Maulana Nabi Hanfi.

Both groups have been at odds with each other for the last two years and have been involved in killing and kidnapping of rival fighters in Kurram.

The WHO Saturday said in a statement from Geneva that a polio eradication worker was shot dead Friday evening in Gadap Town area of port city Karachi.

The victim, identified as Muhammad Ishaq, had worked with the national polio eradication programme for several months, and helped to plan and implement vaccination campaigns to protect local children against the disease.

This was the second shooting incident in a week, which targeted WHO workers.

On Tuesday, a WHO staff member and an international consultant working for the health agency were injured in the same region in an attack launched by armed men.

In the southwest port city of Gwadar, a rocket attack on a police checkpost killed at least eight security personnel and injured three.

Geo News said seven militants riding motorbikes launched the attack around 1 p.m. at the checkpost set up outside a camp of coastal guards in Peshkan area of Gwadar.

The assailants, dressed in uniforms of paramilitary forces, managed to get close to the checkpost and fired rockets at it. The militants fled the scene after the attack.

In Upper Dir region of the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a remote-controlled bomb planted on the roadside ripped through a pick-up truck, killing three people inside.

The explosive device was detonated near Dhog Darra town, said regional police chief Ehsanullah Khan.

Another seven people were wounded in the attack in Dhog Darra, considered a stronghold of an anti-Taliban militia set up by local people.

No militant group claimed responsibility, but an intelligence official in Upper Dir told Xinhua the attackers were followers of Maulana Fazlullah, a radical cleric from the Swat valley, who fled to Afghanistan following a military offensive.

A child and four people were killed in a clash between two tribes in Shikarpur town in Sindh province, Geo News reported.

Police said the two rival tribes opened fire at one another. The child who was passing by lost his life in the firing.

In Sindh capital Karachi, Deputy Superintendent of Police of the Crime Investigation Department, Israr Awan and a guard were injured when unidentified gunmen opened fire at their van, Geo News reported.

Awan was on his way to office when the attack occured in Patel Para area.