Anti-polio campaign: Roadside explosion in Charsadda injures nine

Police van guarding polio team targeted

SHABQADAR: At least four policemen and five civilians were injured on Monday when a roadside bomb exploded near a police van guarding a polio team in Charsadda.

The blast occurred on the opening day of the country’s week-long anti-polio campaign.

District police officer Charsadda Sohail Khalid told The Express Tribune that policemen were patrolling the area when an improvised explosive device, kept in a pressure cooker, went off, injuring nine people, including the station house officer.

Some eight kilogrammes of explosives were used in the blast, according to the bomb disposal squad.

Police and security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation which is still under way, he said. There were no prior threats about the attack.

Khalid also said that the police had been conducting search operations in the area during the past few days and had rounded up several suspected militants and their facilitators. The injured were moved to Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital.

Police have registered an FIR against the unidentified terrorists in CTD police station Mardan. At least 20 suspects were arrested during a combing operation in the area on Friday.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2016.