The incident took place while the children were on their way home from school after completing their classes
Two school-going children were killed in a drone strike in Shah Tangi area of Mamund tehsil in Bajaur district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday, police said.
Deputy Inspector General of Police Niaz Muhammad confirmed the incident and said that the injured were immediately taken to the hospital; however, both children succumbed to their injuries on the way.
According to local sources, the incident took place while the children were returning home from school after completing their classes.
Read: 3 injured in drone terror attack on cricket ground in KP’s Bajaur
The deceased were identified as 10-year-old Hassan, son of Israr, and a 12-year-old boy, son of local religious scholar Maulana Mumtaz.
The incident sparked panic in the area, with residents strongly condemning the strike and demanding a transparent investigation.
Sources said grief gripped the affected families while a large number of local residents gathered at the spot after the incident.
The origin of the quadcopter and those responsible for the attack have not yet been determined.
Earlier this month, at least three people were injured in a terrorist drone attack on a cricket pitch in the same Mamund area.
Last month, while addressing a jirga, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi condemned the drone strikes as the assembly rejected what it described as the recurring pattern of civilian deaths dismissed as mistakes.
The jirga, which displayed rare political unity and included lawmakers from both the treasury and opposition benches representing tribal districts, condemned the continued drone strikes in the region and decided to convene a series of assemblies on the issue.
Addressing the assembly, the chief minister said civilian deaths caused by both terrorism and drone strikes were unacceptable.
“The people of tribal areas cannot be made to pay the double price in terms of their lives,” he said. “Neither terrorism nor civilian deaths in drone strikes can be justified.”
Also Read: KP jirga rejects drone strike, announces emergency assembly session
“Despite modern technology, the continuous loss of innocent lives due to so-called mistakes is unacceptable under any circumstances,” added Gandapur. “Apologies cannot compensate for the lives lost. The damage is irreparable.”
Earlier this month, following public outrage in his constituency over drone strikes, the chief minister hinted at introducing legislation to criminalize collateral damage resulting from such incidents.
“We held a meeting to bring a law against drone strikes, but ‘they’ have protected themselves in the constitution against drone strikes … However, we can legislate against collateral damage,” he said during a session of the KP Assembly convened to discuss the matter.
The chief minister claimed that every time he protested a drone strike, he received a message saying “they” understood the situation and were sorry, without elaborating further.
Later, a grand Loya Jirga of tribal elders agreed to form a less representative jirga to negotiate with the federal government and other stakeholders on behalf of the people of the merged districts of KP.
