The blast badly damaged the car in a remote village in the northwest district of Lower Dir, where militancy has taken its roots.

“It was a remote control IED (improvised-explosive device) which exploded when the vehicle passed. Four people have been killed and two others were wounded,” Salim Khan Marwat, police chief of the area, told AFP by phone.

“One of the dead was a 12-year-old boy. The car was attacked in Samar Bagh area, 60 kilometres northwest of Timergarah, the headquarters of Lower Dir district,” he said.