Tribal elder Malik Younis killed in Bajaur blast

KHAR: Tribal elder Malik Mohammad Younis was killed and two others sustained injuries in a road-side bomb in Bajaur tribal agency on Tuesday, officials said.

"Malik Mohammad Younis was killed and his two sons were wounded after a bomb planted on a roadside exploded as their vehicle passed," said tribal administration official Saaz Mohammad.

The bomb exploded when Malik Mohammad Younis, a prominent elder of the Salarzai tribe, was travelling in a vehicle with his two sons in Gulu Shah village near Khar, the main town in Bajaur district.

Security forces cordoned off the area and launched search operation.

Nobody immediately claimed responsibility, but Taliban militants have carried out several bomb attacks against tribal elders who have raised and supported vigilantes against them.

Officials said Younis supported the government's offensive against Taliban militants and had been active in organising tribes to combat the insurgents.

Bajaur is one of seven semi-autonomous tribal districts along Pakistan's mountainous western border with Afghanistan.

The Pakistan army began military operation Zarb-e-Azb to clear insurgent bases from the North Waziristan tribal district in June last year after a bloody Tehreek-e-Taliban attack on Karachi airport sank faltering peace talks.

The army has intensified its offensive since the TTP's massacre of 153 people, 134 of them children, in a school in Peshawar last December.