Seven people, including five Army soldiers, were killed and nine others sustained injuries when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a military convoy near a filling station on the Bannu-Miramshah Road on Monday. However, military spokesman and Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Maj-Gen Athar Abbas said the explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device (IED) planted in a roadside car.The dead also included an Assistant Engineer of Radio Pakistan Razmak station, Basharat Afridi, and a lady travelling in a passenger coach.
The military convoy was on its way to Miramshah, the headquarters of the militancy-hit North Waziristan Agency, from Bannu when it came under attack near an abandoned security check-post known as Mirzael post, located near a filling station.
Officials told The News that the suicide bomber had parked the explosive-laden car right in the middle of the road and rammed it into the military convoy when it arrived at the scene.
According to sources, the soldiers first asked the driver of the white-colour car to remove it from the road for the convoy to pass. They said the driver sat in the car, switched it on and rammed it into the military convoy, causing a huge blast.
A double-cabin pick-up truck of the convoy was completely destroyed in the blast, while another vehicle was slightly damaged.
According to the sources, four soldiers travelling in the pick-up truck died on the spot, whereas another succumbed to his injuries at the Combined Military Hospital in Bannu. The dead soldiers were identified as Hazrat Shah, Altaf Hussain, Akhtar Jamshed and Gulzar.
Nine other people, including five soldiers, sustained injuries. The injured soldiers included Sajid, Abdul Khaliq, Mukhtiar, Rahmat and Imran were taken to the military hospital.
Eyewitnesses said the soldiers, after the attack on the convoy, opened indiscriminate fire that caused bullet injuries to five people, including a woman, travelling in a passenger coach from Peshawar to Miramshah.
Basharat Afridi of Radio Pakistan Razmak station and the woman later succumbed to their injuries.
Some of the injured, identified as Azeemuddin, Iftikhar, Imran and Anwar Khan, were admitted to the Bannu district headquarters hospital.
The road was closed for traffic after the incident but was re-opened when the dead and injured were shifted to hospital.
No militant group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but there were rumours that it could be a reaction to the recent drone attack on Janikhel village of FR Bannu, where two persons -- a local militant commander and his Arab 'guest' -- were killed.