Security forces launch operation in Mattani

Militants escape on SHO’s vehicle.

PESHAWAR:

Police launched a massive operation against militants in the Shindrang area of Mattani on the outskirts of the provincial metropolis following an attack on a police surveillance party. Two police officials were seriously injured in the attack.

Police personnel equipped with heavy weaponry, accompanied by the Frontier Constabulary and Frontier Corps, started a search operation against militants. Law enforcers from other police stations were also called in to join the forces in the operation.

Sources said militants late Thursday night targeted a police vehicle injuring two police personnel Nahid Ali and Sajid Hussain, who were shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar.

Sources said police officials held a meeting on Friday morning and planned the search operation while ordering additional contingents to participate. They said that around 1:00 pm on Friday, heavy gun battle ensued between the security forces and militants who targeted a white-coloured corolla being driven by Station House Officer Badaber police, Fazl-e-Wahid. The officer escaped unhurt but the militants took his vehicle, fleeing towards the Akakhel area of Khyber Agency.

“We had prior information of the militants’ hideouts in the area,” Superintendent Police rural, Kalam Khan, told The Express Tribune. “It was a joint operation of the security forces. We have had no casualties while any death or injury of the militants cannot be confirmed at the moment,” he added.

Because of its close proximity to the frontier region - the buffer zone between the tribal areas and settled districts of Peshawar and Kohat – areas of Mattani have seen much bloodshed in the recent past, with four bombings in the month of May killing more than 18 people.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2011.