At least 30 people were killed in an overnight Pakistani air strike in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa village, local reports said on Monday.
At least 30 people were killed in an overnight Pakistani air strike in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa village, local reports said on Monday. What followed was – entire homes reduced to rubble, families torn apart, and the village plunged into chaos. Local residents described the aftermath as a “massacre”, with bodies scattered across the village and survivors desperately digging through debris in search of loved ones. Hospitals nearby were overwhelmed as the injured came in.
Disturbing visuals from the site showed bodies, including those of children, lying in the open. Rescue teams are still combing through the debris, fearing that the death toll could rise as more victims are pulled out from beneath the ruins.
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Pak Police suspects TTP’s involvement
While local reports allege that Pakistani fighter jets bombarded the village, official accounts point to an accidental detonation of explosives stashed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants.
According to the Associated Press, citing police sources, the explosion ripped through residential compounds after bomb-making materials planted by TTP fighters ignited. Police officer Zafar Khan claimed the compound served as a clandestine factory for roadside bombs and revealed that TTP commanders Aman Gul and Masood Khan were hiding inside. He accused the militants of cynically using “civilians as human shields” and stockpiling weapons inside mosques across the province.
Yet, local media reports and visuals circulating online suggest Pakistani fighter jets carried out the deadly strike. “All of the victims were civilians,” Amu TV quoted a local source as saying.
The incident came on the heels of TTP ambush in South Waziristan, which killed 12 Pakistani soldiers and injured four others — a grim reminder of the group’s enduring capacity to strike. The TTP, emboldened by the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul in 2021, has staged a bloody resurgence along the Afghan-Pakistan border, rekindling fears of a return to their dominance prior to the 2014 military crackdown. Graffiti and territorial markings in multiple districts have only deepened local fears of a militant revival.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), led by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, accused the government of indiscriminate brutality. “In Khyber District’s Bara Tehsil, Tirah Valley, Aka Khel Upper Bara Matre, the state has crossed all limits of oppression and tyranny against peaceful residents by carrying out airstrikes with fighter jets. Twenty-five innocent children have been martyred in the bombing. Where is the justice in this?” said PTI lawmaker Iqbal Afridi.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) echoed the condemnation, demanding transparency and accountability. “HRCP is deeply shocked to learn that a number of civilians, including children, have been killed, allegedly as a result of aerial bombing in Tirah, Khyber district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. We demand that the authorities carry out an immediate and impartial inquiry into the incident and hold to account those responsible. The state is constitutionally bound to protect all civilians’ right to life, which it has repeatedly failed to secure,” the HRCP stated.