MINGORA: Eight security forces personnel were killed and six others sustained injuries when a police van was blown up with a remote-controlled device in Hazara area of Kabal Tehsil on Saturday. The Swat Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened more strikes if the Army was not withdrawn from the valley and the shelling ended.

Separately, a woman was killed after a shell landed at a house in Khariri village of Matta Tehsil.

The van was taking salaries of officials from Mingora to Kabal and picked up several police officials and FC personnel on way to its destination.

As the vehicle reached Hazara area, it was blown up with a remote-controlled bomb planted at the roadside, killing eight persons, two of them FC officials. The blast also injured six other personnel.

The explosion was so powerful that it tossed human organs into the air and human flesh was seen scattered all around the scene of the blast.

After the blast, large police contingents rushed to the site and cordoned off the area. They shifted the injured personnel to the Saidu Sharif Hospital. Hospital sources said the dead included two sub-inspectors and an additional station house officer.

Those identified among the dead were Amanullah, Hazrat Jamil, Salim, Fayyaz, driver Ghulam Haider, Irfan and two FC personnel Zulfiqar and Javed Iqbal. The name of another dead could not be ascertained. The injured included Hassan Ali Shah, Muhammad Nisar, Izhar, Saqibur Rahman, Naeem and Yasir.

The Rs 1.25 million amount of salaries was also reduced to ashes.

Regional Coordination Officer Fazal Karim Khattak visited the injured and distributed Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 among each of the serious and slightly injured personnel.

Two personnel, Asif Ali and Yahya, miraculously escaped the attack as they had disembarked from the police van prior to the attack. There were unconfirmed reports that the police had arrested five persons for the attack.

It may be mentioned that the Hazara Bridge was blown up a year ago and the traffic was diverted to an unmetalled road. The security forces had been attacked thrice before.

Meanwhile, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Muslim Khan claimed responsibility for the Hazara attack and said it was a reaction to the military operation in Swat. "We avenged the killing of innocent civilians by the security forces in unabated shelling. We cannot guarantee peace until the withdrawal of forces. We will carry out suicide and bomb strikes in response to attacks on the Taliban," he threatened.

Elsewhere, the security forces continued pounding suspected positions of Taliban in Matta, Kabal and Charbagh areas of the troubled Swat Valley on the fourth day of the operation on Saturday in which a woman died and several houses were damaged.

A shell hit the house of Abdul Mateen Khan at Khariri, killing his wife and injuring a child. There were also reports of injuries to several other persons, but due to the curfew, shelling and blockade of roads, people faced problems in shifting the injured to hospitals.

The militants torched a private girls' college in Mingora and a primary school in Matta. Some masked people, locals said, entered the Swat Public School, a private girls' college and held the guards hostages after snatching arms from them. A girls' primary school was also burnt down in Matta. A bomb partially destroyed a bridge at Allahabad on the Kalam Road while another bridge at Khwazakhela was damaged by a mortar shell.

In Darmai area of Matta, the militants abducted two nephews of a police official, Jamaluddin, warning him to leave the job or else the victims would be executed.

Curfew was relaxed in Mingora, the district headquarters of Swat, up to Landaki from 7 am to 7 pm while in other parts of the district, the curfew remained imposed. Due to the curfew in upper parts of the valley, majority of bazaars in Mingora remained closed on Saturday and attendance in educational institutions and offices remained thin.

It also created food shortage besides hindering the exodus of people from the troubled areas. During the five-hour relaxation in curfew, thousands of people from different villages of Matta and Kabal left for safer places.

Reuters adds: Ali Rehmat Khan, the local police chief, said 15 policemen were travelling in the vehicle. "We were returning from holiday and going to Kabal when the bomb exploded under our vehicle," Inspector Mohammad Wisaal, one of the wounded men, told Reuters in a hospital in Mingora.

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=16383

How sad, Pakistan is falling in the old trap of fighting a dirty war for uncle Sam. How many countries have followed the same route and suffered internal disintegration? Too many to count. The greed of the few fuelling the death of many.

What we can do against this IED atacks ...? buy Technik from US ?

Yeah we should let criminals with long beards and Klashnikovs burn girl's schools and behead whoever they want.

Or we could let beardless , drunkard perverts, rape , murder , kidnap, torture and spread aids. I guess you have your preferences zarrar?

Huh??????!!?????????????