PESHAWAR - Three persons including a policeman, an elderly man and a child were in­jured as security personnel fired shots in the air at Angoor Adda, the border with Afghanistan in South Waziristan district, the police said yesterday.

District Police Officer Shaukat Ali told The Nation that it was a pre-planned attempt by a gang to cause the stam­pede to cross the border.

“The border is opened for pedestri­ans to cross it each Saturday. Howev­er, the security personnel thorough­ly check those entering it and those who do not have the required docu­ments are refused entry. This was per­haps the reason that many such peo­ple lacking documents were waiting for the border to reopen, and hence they at once rushed to cross the bor­der without checking, prompting the security personnel to fire shots in the air and disperse the crowd,” the offi­cial claimed.

Meanwhile, another source from the border area told this correspondent that an elderly man and a child died in the incident.

“The border reopened after four months and people in large numbers were waiting on both sides to cross it. However, there was just one per­son enlisting the visitors,” he said, adding that the delay infuriated the people who pelted stones on the se­curity personnel, who retaliated with firing, leading to the death of two persons.

However, the DPO rejected the deaths of two people and claimed that just one policeman had been injured.