The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said on Monday it was “deeply shocked” to hear about reports of the killing of several civilians caused by alleged “aerial bombing” in the Tirah area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and demanded a probe into the matter.

The “HRCP is deeply shocked to learn that a number of civilians, including children, have been killed, allegedly as a result of aerial bombing in Tirah, Khyber district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” the organisation posted on X.

It demanded that “the authorities carry out an immediate and impartial inquiry into the incident and hold to account those responsible”.

“The state is constitutionally bound to protect all civilians’ right to life, which it has repeatedly failed to secure,” the HRCP statement read.

So far, no official statement sharing the details of the reported incident has been issued by the relevant authorities. Dawn.com has reached out to Khyber Deputy Commissioner Bilal Shahid and District Police Officer Mazhar Iqbal for a comment, but has not received any response so far.

Meanwhile, a senior police officer in the area told AFP on condition of anonymity that “the jets targeted four houses, which were completely destroyed”. He, however, did not say who carried out the attack.

KP Assembly Speaker Babar Swati called on the federal and provincial governments to conduct a “transparent and immediate investigation into the incident, identify those responsible, and not only provide immediate relief and compensation to the affected families but also take comprehensive measures for their rehabilitation”.

A statement uploaded on his X account said he expressed his sorrow over the “martyrdom of innocent civilians and the destruction of homes due to the bombardment by jet aircraft”.

Special Assistant to Chief Minister for Communication and Works Sohail Afridi also raised his voice on the matter during today’s KP Assembly session. He said the “horrifying tragedy” occurred at 2am in Tirah.

He alleged that 25 people, including women and children, were killed when “mortar and bombs were dropped” on the locals. He blamed the security forces for the incident, however, it has not yet been independently established who was responsible.

Mohammad Iqbal Khan Afridi, member of the National Assembly from Khyber, expressed sorrow over the incident in a video message in Pashto, which he shared with the media.

He said elderly women and children were killed in “shelling by jets” in Tirah and urged the people to reach the site of the incident to protest the killings.

The MNA said it was not the first time that such an incident had taken place. “The killing of civilians has become a routine.”

In a similar incident in May, 22 people, including seven children, were injured in an alleged quadcopter strike in the Wana tehsil of KP’s South Waziristan district.

Around a week earlier, four children were killed and five others were injured in a suspected quadcopter munitions drop in Mir Ali tehsil of the North Waziristan district in KP. Later, the military clarified that security forces were “falsely implicated” in the incident and that it was carried out by the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Additional reporting by Ibrahim Shinwari.