MOHMAND AGENCY: Nine security personnel sustained injuries Wednesday in two separate Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasts in Mohmand Agency.

The first blast occurred in Safai tehsil when an IED exploded near a security forces’ vehicle, wounding eight security personnel. The injured were shifted to Mamad Gut hospital for treatment.

The second explosion also took place in Safai tehsil when an IED went off during a bomb disposal exercise, injuring one security man.

According to the area’s political administration, two militant hideouts were destroyed in the Halemzai tehsil of Mohmand Agency when security forces conducted an operation in the area.

Mohmand is one of Pakistan’s seven tribal agencies near the Afghan border which are rife with homegrown insurgents and are said to be strongholds of Taliban and al Qaeda operatives.

In February 2015, Mohmand Rifles Commandant Colonel Umar Haider Bokhari while speaking to journalists said that the security forces, with the support of local tribesmen, have cleared most areas of Mohmand Agency of militants and restored peace there.

Col Bokhari said that security forces and the local peace committees and the political administration had set up checkposts in the agency to restrict the movement of militants, adding that the government’s writ had been restored to the tribal agency after successful military operations.