Hand grenade kills 6 children in Hangu

HANGU: Six children of an internally displaced family were killed when a live hand grenade, which they thought was a toy, exploded in their hands here on Sunday, police said.

"Five boys and one girl were killed in the blast. One other child was injured," local police chief Iftikhar Ahmed said.

Details have it that children, were playing ball with each other using a grenade and accidentally removed the safety pin leading to the explosion.

Syed Ahmed Jan, a senior local administration official, added: "The children were playing with a hand grenade which they had brought home form a nearby open field."

Another police official said the children were all members of the same family who had migrated from the neighbouring Orakzai tribal agency where the military is battling the Taliban.

"The children died of shrapnel and shockwave injuries almost on the spot", sources quoted an official as saying.

The bodies of deceased minors were shifted to District Headquarter Hospital Hangu.

It is noteworthy that Hangu itself is regularly targeted by militants.

Aitzaz Hassan, a schoolboy from a nearby village sacrificed his life to stop a suicide bomber, saving the lives of his classmates earlier this month.

The Taliban have since 2007 waged a war against the state, intended to force the government to scrap its alliance with the US and to impose the militants´ brand of Sharia law.