PESHAWAR: Three people, including two children, were killed and four others were wounded when a mortar shell struck a house in northwestern Pakistan, police said on Sunday.
The incident took place in South Waziristan district on Saturday night when a shell struck a residential house in Birmil Tehsil area, an incident report prepared by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Police said.
“At least three people, including two children, were killed and four others injured when a shell struck a residential house in Birmal Tehsil Lower South Waziristan late Saturday night,” the report said.
“The source and target of the shelling were not immediately confirmed. Further details are awaited.”
It added that the mortar shell struck the home of a resident named Muhammad Gul at 11:20 pm. Gul’s wife and three sons aged 13, 4 and 22, were also injured in the attack. They were shifted to the District Headquarters Wana for medical treatment.
Meanwhile, his 15-year-old daughter and two girls named Gulnaza Bibi, 9 and Bashro Bana, 6, were the three people killed in the strike.
Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported that the shell was suspected to have been dropped by a quadcopter drone.
“According to local sources, similar alleged quadcopter drone incidents have previously been reported in several areas of Birmal tehsil, including Azam Warsak, Guldona Ghundai, Karmazi, Staff and Kalotai,” Dawn said.
Pakistani officials have said in the past that armed militant groups, particularly the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), are increasingly using commercial drones modified to drop explosives, alongside other weapons, to attack Pakistani law enforcers in KP.
South Waziristan is counted among Pakistan’s most volatile district, where security forces are frequently involved in gunbattles with militant outfits such as the TTP.
