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Blast kills 6 children in village northwest of Pakistan

A body is covered at the site of an explosion that targeted a police vehicle in Quetta on June 23, 2017. (AFP photo)

Six children have been killed while playing with an explosive-laden toy in a village in northwestern Pakistan.

Senior government official Muhammed Sohaib said Sunday that the children were killed after picking up a explosive device that looked like a toy.

“Four of them died on the spot, one on the way to hospital, and one at the hospital,” said, Muhammed Umer, a relative of one of the children injured in the blast. He said the children encountered the device while playing outdoors.

Sohaib said the government would compensate the families of the victims and take care of the children's medical bills.

The blast comes a day after two children were killed from a mine explosion while playing in the fields in a nearby village. Reports said the children had stepped on a landmine.

Sohaib said blasts from improvised explosive devices (IEC) have killed or disabled at least 31 people, including several children, in the South Waziristan region since 2016. The area is part of Pakistan’s troubled tribal regions which have been beset by militancy for years. The United Nations says a government offensive launched in 2009 against the Taliban has displaced over a million from the area. Many have returned home, the UN says, but only to face rubble.

Many killed in blasts or terror attacks in South Waziristan are those succumbing to injuries as the nearest hospital in district capital Wana is five to six hours drive from the tribal regions.  


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