WANA: The market in Wana has reopened after three days of closure following it was blown up by the administration in the wake of army officer’s killing.
AFP adds: The market housing more than 100 shops was destroyed on Thursday in Wana, the capital of the South Waziristan region, one of the seven semi-autonomous tribal areas where the army has been battling Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants for more than a decade.
“The security forces ordered the shopkeepers to leave the market, which had over 100 shops and blew it up with explosives,” senior local administration official, Zafar-ul-Islam told AFP on Saturday.
An improvised explosive device (IED) killed an army major on Tuesday (November 1) outside a weapons shop as the military staged a raid of the market.
Afghan national Kharoti Khan, who owned the shop, was arrested and his house demolished a day after the explosion, Islam said.
He added the market was demolished as part of a “collective responsibility” to curb militancy from the area.
The army launched an operation in June 2014 in neighbouring North Waziristan to wipe out militant bases in the tribal areas and bring an end to a bloody insurgency that has cost thousands of civilian lives since 2004.
