Resurgence? Taliban kill 9 Khasadars in Mohmand Agency

Militants also destroyed a veterinary hospital in Charsadda


Mureeb Mohmand February 18, 2016
Tribesmen sift through rubble inside a Khasadar check post attacked in Mohmand. PHOTO: AFP

SHABQADAR:


Militants from a Taliban splinter group attacked and killed at least nine security personnel in two separate attacks in Lower Mohmand Agency between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, security and government officials said.


According to the political administration of the agency, militants first attacked two Khasadars who were guarding a solar-powered tube well in Darwaz Gai area near Ekka Gund on the Mohmand-Charsadda border.

Naveed Akbar, a senior government official in Mohmand, said that the assailants shot dead Khasadars Bilal Khan and Taj Mali Khan. Before escaping, the militants set a motorcycle on fire.

Following the attack in Ekka Ghund, militants assaulted a Khasadar paramilitary force check post at Khrapa Pass on the Mohmand-Peshawar highway in Pandyali tehsil.

The attack left seven Khasadars dead who were identified as Zakir Khan, Anwar Khan, Multani Khan, Murad Khan, Naseer Khan, Farhad khan, and Ibne Ameen Khan.

Officials did not provide details about what may have happened beyond the death toll and the names of the victims. However, agency surgeon Dr Riaz Khan at the Agency Headquarters Hospital in Ghallanai told The Express Tribune that all seven bodies carried gunshots to the head.

Six of these men were standing in for their tribesmen, under a system called Ewazi Khasadar. Under the system, a substitute is paid while standing in on duty for another member of the tribe but does not get compensation.

Apart from the two attacks, militants also destroyed a veterinary hospital at the Shno Ghundi area of Charsadda district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. However, it was not immediately clear where the militants had come out from or what their strength was. The Jamaatur Ahrar, a faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attacks in an email.  Following the attacks, the political administration and security forces launched joint-search operations in the area and had arrested at least six suspects.

This is the first major attack in the agency since the area was cleared of militants following the massive military operation in the tribal areas, codenamed Zarb-e-Azb, which was launched in June 2014. The operation had brought relative peace to the agency which reported a massive drop in violent incidents during 2015. Funerals for the two officials killed in Darwaz Gai were held in the area before they were laid to rest in their ancestral villages.

The funeral prayers for the seven Khasadars killed at Khrapa Pass were held at the Levies Line in Ghallanai. It was attended by Mohmand Agency Political Agent Mehmood Aslam and other high-ranking civil and military officials. Following the prayers, bodies of the seven men were moved to their native villages in Pandayali, Mohamand Agency. Aslam also announced Rs30,000 as compensation for each of the men killed.

Thursday’s attacks were the largest since the militants had killed at least 20 people, mostly students, at the Bacha Khan University, in Charsadda on January 20. The university is located about 48 km from the sites of Thursday’s attacks.


Published in The Express Tribune, February 19th, 2016.

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