Attack on army convoy: Over a dozen suspects picked up from Mansehra

MANSEHRA:

The police have arrested more than 16 suspects for their alleged connection with the twin blasts that targeted a military convoy on the Karakoram Highway on Saturday.

According to officials, police and intelligence agencies conducted a joint operation in Mansehra and arrested at least 16 suspects and shifted them to an undisclosed location for interrogation.

“Yes we have picked up over 16 people, including Afghan refugees, and residents of Kohistan and Allai, Battagram,” said a police official.

Meanwhile, no group has claimed responsibility for the remote-controlled bombings.

On Saturday, eight trucks carrying army personnel were on their way to Gilgit when the vehicle at the front, carrying four people, was attacked. An improvised explosive device (IED) had been detonated remotely, and the blast injured four military personnel severely.

Eyewitnesses and police claimed when rescuers and media personnel gathered near the site of the explosion, another IED was detonated, also via remote control, killing a passer-by and injuring four people, including two journalists. The two blasts left a military truck and three private vehicles badly damaged.

After the incident, police registered a case against unidentified terrorists under sections 302, 324 of the Pakistan Penal Code and various sections of the explosives and anti-terrorism acts.

In December last year, a police constable was killed and five others injured when police vans were targeted in remote-controlled IED blasts near Mansehra jail. 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2014.