Pakistan: Eight of family killed, one injured after landmine explodes in Kurram Agency

Islamabad: Eight members of a family were killed and another person was injured when a mine exploded on Tuesday as a vehicle was passing through the tribal region of northwestern Pakistan, an official said. The mine exploded as the vehicle was travelling through the Kurram Agency bordering Afghanistan around 8 am, regional administration spokesperson Arbab Ali told Efe news. He said that five women and three men were killed in the explosion while another person was wounded and taken to hospital in Peshawar. The explosion occurred in an area which is predominantly Shia, a community which has been targeted several times, although Ali said that the victims from Tuesday’s attack were all Sunnis. In June, 25 people were killed and a 100 injured in a double explosion in Kurram market. In March, a car bomb explosion near a Shia mosque for women in Parachinar, the capital of Kurram Agency, left 22 people dead. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, there has been a decline in violence in Pakistan with 1,260 terror-related deaths in 2017 (540 civilians, 208 security force members and 512 alleged terrorists), the lowest figure in a decade.