Four people were killed and three others wounded when missiles fired from Afghanistan struck a seminary in Saidgi area of North Waziristan on Friday, residents and officials said.
According to some residents, at least five missiles fired from a UAV in Afghanistan hit Darul Uloom Hassania near a house. The attack took place at about 3.30am when people were sleeping in the courtyard.
A resident of the area, Abdul Ghafoor, said a drone had been seen hovering over the town 3km away from the Afghan border. A security official claimed that the drone had fired missiles on the seminary. One missile did not explode.
Sources said the nearby house of a tribesman, Habib Khan, had been damaged. The Darul Uloom belongs to tribal militant commander Maulvi Noor Mohammad, who had signed a peace deal with the government in September last year.
The injured men were brought to a hospital in Miramshah. Doctors said two of them had been discharged after treatment. People of the area said the victims were locals. Those who died in the attack are: Zahidullah, Abdul Ghafoor, Jan Mohammad Mehsud and Dilawar.
Their funeral near Miramshah was attended by a large number of tribesmen. Three bodies were buried in Miramshah and one sent to South Waziristan.
'The Fourth Rail' quotes the Associated Press, Daily Times, Dawn and other Pakistani newspapers, the two religious schools (called Darul Uloom Hassania) that were purportedly hit were owned by none other than Maulana Noor Mohammad, whose home was raid last year.
Dawn notes that Noor Mohammed "signed a peace deal with the government in September last year." That peace deal is the infamous Waziristan Accord, which the Pakistani government ceded control of North Waziristan to the Taliban and al Qaeda.
The Musharraf regime tried to cover up the attack by a statement from a senior military official in the capital, Islamabad, saying the dead and wounded were making bombs and had accidentally caused an explosion.
But two local intelligence officials admitted it was a missile attack, and a government official said the projectiles were apparently fired from Afghanistan.