KOHAT, Oct 10: At least 50 Alizai tribesmen of the Orakzai Agency were killed and 100 others injured on Friday when a suicide attacker blew up his explosive-laden vehicle at a jirga being held at a ground at Khadezai area in the upper Kurram Agency.

The injured were being brought to the Kohat Divisional Headquarters Hospital from the site of the blast till late night.

Officials said that the Taliban of Darra Adam Khel, who had been warning the elders of the tribe not to raise lashkar against them, were behind the suicide attack.

Local people and officials present at the scene gave conflicting casualty figures. They said that scores of the injured were still lying at the site of the blast located about five hours’ drive from the city.

“The jirga was in progress when a pick-up truck ran into it. Immediately after that the blast occurred and the explosion was so severe that the vehicle was buried in the ground,” said a tribal elder at a hospital. The sources said that over 2,000 armed tribesmen of the Alizai tribe had gathered near the Ghiljo bazaar to decide about taking action against the Taliban headquarters in the Khadezai area.

The government declared emergency in all hospitals in Hangu and Kohat districts.

A doctor at a hospital in Ghiljo told Dawn that five bodies were still lying at the hospital, while 15 people were being treated there. He said that the critically wounded people had been referred to hospitals in Kohat and Hangu.

Sources feared that many of the injured had died on their way to hospitals because of the distances involved; the nearest hospital being one-and-a-half hours’ drive away. The sources said that 25 of the injured had been brought to the Kohat hospital, where two of them had died. Some the injured, one of them a child, were in critical condition.

Political Agent of the Orakzai Agency Kamran Zeb said that all the 18 tribes of the tribal region had unanimously decided last month that they would not allow Taliban to use their land for carrying out terrorist activities.

The Alizai tribe had burnt the house of Maulvi Ghulam Nabi and one Kamran who were found involved in subversive activities a few days ago, which had angered the Taliban.

More than 5,000 Taliban are reportedly taking shelter in the Orakzai Agency. To counter them, the tribes had formed a joint lashkar of more than 60,000 tribesmen, the sources said.