Suspected drone strike kills three children, injures 10 in Bajaur

PESHAWAR: At least three children including a girl were killed and 10 others injured after a suspected quadcopter drone dropped an explosive device on a residential compound in Bajaur district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, police said on Thursday.

The attack occurred late Wednesday night in the Shinkot area near Dama Dola, bordering Afghanistan, police said.

The blast targeted the home of a local resident identified as Said Wali, destroying parts of the structure.

“The deceased included a five-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy,” Deputy Superintendent of Police for Mamund Circle Saidur Rehman told reporters. All 13 casualties belonged to the same family, police added.

Emergency officials transported the bodies and the injured to the District Headquarters Hospital in Khar, the main town in Bajaur.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the strike.

Police teams have been dispatched to the site to collect forensic evidence and determine the origin of the quadcopter, Rehman said.

The incident marks an escalating trend of low-cost drone deployment in the region, which has long been a flashpoint for militant activity.

It is the second such strike in Bajaur this week as on Sunday, a similar attack killed a child and wounded a woman in the Inam Khuro area.

Earlier on May 21, two school children were killed in another suspected quadcopter drone strike in a hilly tract of the same district.