A police assistant sub-inspector (ASI) was martyred by unidentified miscreants near New Sabzi Mandi in Bannu district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) on Saturday.
Police told The Express Tribune that ASI Asghar Khan was targeted near Gate No 2 of New Sabzi Mandi in the jurisdiction of Mandan police station by unidentified bike riders who managed to escape after committing the crime.
“Asghar Khan was there to buy vegetables and fruit and posted as muharar in the police lines. In the attack, he was seriously wounded and rushed to the hospital where he succumbed to his injuries,” the official said, adding that a large number of police reached the site of the attack and initiated a search for the attackers but they had escaped by taking full advantage of the stampede caused by firing.
“This is yet another targeted attack at police and terrorists are involved in it,” he said, adding that an FIR has been registered by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) under 7ATA.
In recent days attacks at police have increased in pace and in Bannu many policemen have been targeted. On November 17, a police constable Shah Fahad was killed in the jurisdiction of the same police Mandan station.
Attacks are constantly taking place at police in Bannu, Tank, Lakki Marwat, DI Khan, North and South Waziristan, Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda, Peshawar, Nowshera, Bajaur and other districts.
The last rites of the slain ASI were offered in Bannu Police Lines with full guard of honour and the body was sent to ancestral town for burial.
“An inquiry team has been formed by the CTD and police jointly who started investigation in the case. It is really strange that in almost every single case of targeted attacks, the attackers managed to escape after committing the crime,” said another official, adding that there was a sudden increase in the extortion calls as well by the same miscreants involved in attacks at police.
In Bakk Khel tehsil of Bannu, local bodies’ elections were suspended due to the attacks at polling stations by armed men who also made the staff hostage and took way the election material on December 18.
On October 23, four officials of Forest Department were kidnapped along with their female superior in Baran Dam area in Bannu. On November 2, the female officer Shaista Bibi was found unconscious by a nomadic family in Boma who was released by the kidnappers due to her poor health. Latter the three other officials were also released and found near Ghulam Khan are of Pak-Afghan border.
“We receive security threats almost on daily basis telling us that police is the prime target. Despite all these alerts and instructions attacks at police are successful which is unfortunate. A few days ago a constable was killed inside a police post in Sarband on the outskirt of Peshawar and the attackers once again managed to escape on a bike,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 2nd, 2022.
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