Two police officials killed in Nowshera blast

One of the victims was a lady constable; 10 others were injured.

PESHAWAR:

Two police officials, one of them a policewoman, were killed and 10 others were injured in a remote-controlled blast outside the Nowshera District Courts on Tuesday, the police said.

They said that the explosives were planted outside the main gate in a canister and were detonated through a mobile phone at around 8:15 am. Nowshera district police chief Quraysh Khan told reporters that the blast resulted in the death of a lady constable deputed at the gate, and injured four others.

Quraysh said that one kilogramme of explosives were used in the blast, adding that the security was placed according to routine at the court’s premises.

Wazir, an eyewitness, said that he was standing at a stamp-paper shop close to the gate when the explosion took place. “A van carrying a burqa-clad woman arrived at the gate. After the gate opened, the constable came forward to check the woman and there was a loud bang,” he said.

The injured were rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital and the Combined Military Hospital in Nowshera.

The lady constable was identified as Shazia Gul and is said to be the first policewoman killed in a bomb blast in K-P during the ongoing insurgency.

Shazia was mother to a nine-month-old child and was recruited in the police force in 2005.

Five of the injured were also policemen and were identified as Raaz Mohammad, Zulfikar, Khushdil and Kazim.

Sources said that the burqa-clad woman in the van was also injured in this blast. The police have impounded the van and opened investigation into the incident.

Peshawar Session Courts and Judicial Complex have come under attack at their gates, in the past as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2011.