BATKHELA, Jan 30: Four soldiers were killed and eight others injured when a military convoy hit a roadside bomb near Jalala, a protected area in Malakand on the Peshawar-Mingora road.

The convoy was going from Swat to an area in the south. The bomb, detonated by remote control, destroyed one of the vehicles in the convoy.

According to local people, when the convoy got stuck in a traffic jam in the Batkhela Bazaar, soldiers fired in the air to clear the way. Two civilian vehicles were hit but no casualty was reported. Commuters and pedestrians left the orad in panic and shops in the bazaar were closed.

On Thursday night, 15 masked men came to the bazaar and searched a makeshift cabin. They left after warning the owner that he would be killed if any ‘contraband’ was found in his shop.