BAJAUR: Four members of a family sustained injuries on Thursday when a mortar shell struck a house in the Mamond tehsil of Bajaur district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to police sources.
Bajaur police spokesperson Israr Salarzai confirmed that the incident occurred in the Gohati area of Mamond, where a civilian residence was hit by a mortar round. “Four men were wounded in the explosion and have been shifted to the Lar Khalazo Tehsil Headquarters Hospital for treatment,” he said. One of the injured is reportedly in critical condition.
The incident follows a recent military operation in the region. Earlier this week, the Bajaur district administration had imposed a curfew across 16 localities as part of an operation against suspected militants. The curfew, which lasted two days, has since been lifted, police said.
Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, addressing growing security concerns in the province, announced on Wednesday that a series of jirgas will begin on August 2 to deliberate on local grievances and future actions in troubled areas.
Bajaur, once a stronghold of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has witnessed a renewed spike in militant activity in recent months. On July 10, ANP leader Maulana Khan Zeb and a police officer were gunned down in an ambush. Earlier, on July 2, a roadside bomb in Sadiqabad claimed five lives — including an assistant commissioner and a tehsildar — and left 17 others injured, most of them policemen.
Cross-border attacks have also escalated. On June 13, firing from across the Afghan border killed one man and injured two women in Salarzai tehsil. In January, PTI lawmaker Anwar Zaib Khan alleged that militants from Afghanistan had overrun 15 security checkposts within Bajaur.
