(Previous Incident Code: Ob224 )

Up to a dozen people were reported killed in an attack on one or two trucks. Three ‘foreigners’ and five local Taliban fighters were reported among the dead. Sources reported that Shakirullah Shakir, a spokesman for the TTP‘s Fidayeen e Islami or suicide bomb squad, was among those killed. However he had been reported killed three weeks before, shot by unknown attackers. The shooting reportedly coincided with discord within the TTP. Hakimullah Mehsud had been in charge of the group for a year but schisms were said to be emerging. Shakir was a ‘key figure’ in the TTP and a tribal source told Express Tribune his shooting was ‘like a slap on the face for [Mehsud]. Nobody could have imagined such things here sometime back.’