Three USAID officials killed in Lower Dir blast

The security forces immediately sealed off the area and began evacuating the dead and wounded. — Photo by Reuters

PESHAWAR: Three American aid officials were among six killed that included three school children when a paramilitary convoy on its way to inaugurate a school was hit by a roadside bombing in the northern Lower Dir district on Wednesday, officials said.

A security official said the three aid workers belonged to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Their names could not immediately be ascertained.

The official said a convoy escorted by the paramilitary Frontier Corps was hit by a powerful roadside bombing near the Koto village in Hajiabad in Lower Dir, killing the three aid workers and three school children.

“We can not release the identities of the aid workers”, the official said, requesting he not be named.

“It was a huge blast”, local journalist, Haroon Rashid, who accompanied the convoy and was also wounded in the explosion told Dawn.

“The army has sealed off the area and no one is being allowed to move. I am here with wounds on my leg and arms and am waiting to be evacuated”, he said on phone from the scene of the occurrence.

The explosion left 59 others wounded including five paramilitary personnel and two local journalists. Majority of those wounded were girls from a girls’ high school situated on the main road, Deputy Coordination Officer, Lower Dir, Ghulam Muhammad told Dawn from the regional headquarters of Timergarah.

The security official said the group was on its way to inaugurate a primary school in Kad, Lower Dir that had been blown up by militants but was rebuilt by USAID.

The security forces immediately sealed off the area and began evacuating the dead and wounded.

“We are still receiving the wounded”, Medical Superintendent of the District headquarters Hospital, Lower Dir, Dr. Wakil Muhammad said.