TIMERGARA, Sept 10: At least 12 people were killed and 20 were injured when suspected militants hurled hand-grenades and fired on people offering Taraveeh prayers in a mosque in the Miskene area on Wednesday night, police said.

Official sources said that the death toll could rise. The village of Benai where the carnage took place is near the Afghan border.

(“Militants surrounded the mosque, threw grenades and then started indiscriminate firing, killing 20 people and wounding 30 others,” police officer Naveed Khan told AFP.)

People are facing problems in taking the injured to hospitals because the terrain is rough and difficult.

“We are facing problem in communicating with police in the area. According to information gathered by us from other sources at least 12 people have been killed,” said Syed Fida Hassan, the district Police Officer of Lower Dir.

He said there was a possibility of the presence of militants in the area, being close to the border, but nothing could be said with certainty about the elements involved in the attack.

The SHO of Samarbagh police station told Dawn he had heard from local people that 15 people had been killed and 20 others were wounded. He claimed that the miscreants first tossed hand-grenades and then started firing indiscriminately.

Some of the injured were taken to the district headquarters hospital in Timergara and tehsil hospital in Samarbagh.

“We were offering Taraveeh when these people hurled explosives into the mosque causing a series of explosions,” said a local man. The mosque was full and there were children as well.

Miskene is about 45km north of the Lower Dir district in Samarbagh tehsil close to Bajaur Agency.

In some parts of Lower Dir, local people recently rose against militants and asked them to leave the area. However, there was no such movement against militants in Miskene.