Two cops among four slain in bomb, grenade attacks

SHABQADAR/ PESHAWAR/ PARACHINAR: Two policemen were killed in a hand grenade attack on their patrol van in the main marketplace of Shabqadar Tuesday evening. In other violence, two persons were killed when a school van hit a roadside bomb in the Kurram tribal region.

The TTP Jamaatul Ahrar claimed responsibility for the Shabqadar attack, calling it a remote-controlled blast. However, police official Gul Syed Khan said that militants riding on a motorcycle lobbed a hand grenade inside the police van which was en route to Bacha Khan Chowk from Michni Road.

The blast triggered a fire on the van, seriously injuring driver Ibrahim and head constable Shaheen Islam. They were driven to the Shabqadar Hospital where Shaheen died while Ibrahim was ferried to Peshawar for treatment of his serious wounds. However, he couldn’t survive.

The police van was gutted in the fire as fire tenders could not reach the site which was in the middle of the congested bazaar. Police cordoned off the area and launched a manhunt for the attackers.

Shabqadar tehsil of Charsadda district is vulnerable to militant attacks due to its proximity with Mohmand Agency. In the same market, three shops selling audio and video CDs were targeted with a homemade bomb Friday  evening, prompting police to close down all such shops as a precautionary measure.

Meanwhile in Kurram Agency, two persons were killed and one was injured when a school van hit a roadside bomb on Tuesday.

An official of the political administration from Parachinar, the administrative headquarters of Kurram Agency, said the incident happened in the Nasti Kot area of Upper Kurram in the early hours of Tuesday.

The van was taking pupils to a local school when a home-made bomb planted on a roadside went off, the official added. The van driver and a student were killed on the spot while a 10 grade female student was critically wounded.

The casualties were driven to the Agency Headquarters Hospital in Parachinar as security forces launched a search operation in the region. The injured student was referred to Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital for treatment of her life-threatening wounds.

Separately, a tribesman, identified as Javaid Hussain, was critically wounded when he inadvertently stepped on a landmine in the Pewar area of Parachinar. In the neighbouring Khyber Agency, where a security operation has been ongoing since mid-October, at least six militants were killed in fresh air strikes by military warplanes.

According to security officials fighter jets bombed suspected hideouts of militants in the mountainous area of the remote Tirah Valley. “Three hideouts were destroyed and six militants killed in the air raids,” one official said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2014.