MIRANSHAH: A suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a vehicle carrying Taliban militants in Pakistan’s troubled northwest yesterday, killing at least seven insurgents including a local commander, officials said.
The attack took place in the Mir Ali area, some 35 kilometres east of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal district, a hub of Taliban and Al Qaeda linked militants.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility and the motive of the attack was not clear but militant groups in the past have carried out suicide attacks against each other in the tribal belt.
Qari Saifuddin, a local Pakistani Taliban commander, was travelling in a pick-up truck along with his associates when a suicide bomber smashed his explosive filled car into their vehicle.
“Taliban commander Qari Saifuddin and his six associates were killed on the spot,” a local security official said.
Landmine blast kills 7 children
Kabul: About seven children were killed and five others wounded in a landmine blast yesterday in southeastern Afghanistan’s Paktika province , officials said.
The blast Monday in the Malizi area of the province’s Khairkot district occurred when one of the children stepped on the explosive device, Mukhlis Afghan, a spokesman for the governor, told Pajhwok Afghan News.
Those injured were taken to a hospital, where some remained in critical condition.
Earlier Monday, two civilians were killed and a third injured yesterday in a bomb blast in the state of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.
A spokesman for the provincial governor Jawed Faisal said a man and his son were killed and another was injured by the explosion of a roadside explosive device in the state of Arghistan which targeted their truck.
18pc surge in medicine prices
ISLAMABAD: The pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan plans to increase the prices of all registered drugs by up to 18 percent. In the absence of a national drug pricing policy, the manufacturers claim the increase has been allowed by the federal government.
“We have asked our members to prepare a list of drugs with increase for submission to the Drug Regulatory Authority,” Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association Secretary General Javed Akbar said yesterday. He said the list would be submitted to the government and the new prices would later be printed on the products.
Akbar termed the 18 per cent increase ‘meagre’ in comparison with the calculation made by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP). He said the formula for price increase had been approved by the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet.
AGENCIES
