Charsadda attacks: FC official killed, two policemen injured

Initial investigations say attackers were the same in both incidents of violence.

SHABQADAR: A Frontier Constabulary (FC) official was killed and two police constables were injured when militants opened fire at them in two separate incidents in Charsadda’s Shabqadar Bazaar on Tuesday.

Irfan Khan, an official of the Shabaqadar police, said an FC official identified as Abdul Qadeer, a resident of Khubai, had left his check post to visit the bazaar when two unidentified attackers opened fire. Qadeer was killed instantly and the culprits managed to escape the scene. The official further said Qadeer was not on duty, but was roaming the market in uniform when the incident took place.

Another police official, who wished to remain anonymous, said initial investigations revealed the man had left the check post without taking permission from his superiors. “We are trying to sort out whether the man was victim to a militant attack or gunned due to a personal enmity,” he said, adding the FC official’s body was buried in his hometown.



Khan said 10 minutes after the firing incident took place, a police van en route to Shabqadar from Peshawar came under attack by unidentified militants. DSP Bashir Khan, two inspectors, two constables and the van driver were on their way to Shabqadar police station to investigate a case when two men opened fire at their van outside the bazaar. Khan said the van driver along with constables Mukhtiar and Shoaibul Islam were injured in the assault. The wounded officers were taken to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar.

Khan maintained initial investigations revealed the militants who fired at the police were the same who gunned down the FC official earlier. “They assumed police had identified them and were en route to arrest them, so they opened fire at the van and escaped,” he said. No FIRs were registered till the filing of this report.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2013.