Cop martyred in K-P check post attack

A policeman embraced martyrdom while two of his colleagues sustained injuries as another check-post came under terrorists’ attack in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Charsadda district, a police official said on Saturday.

District Police Officer (DPO) Charsadda Suhail Khalid told The Express Tribune that terrorists on a motorbike opened fire at a check-post manned by three policemen in Dheri Zardad in Charsadda, injuring all of them.

The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital where Constable Imran Khan succumbed to his injuries. The wo other constables, namely Yousuf Ali and Rameez Khan, were shifted to Peshawar for treatment.

The Charsadda police spokesperson said the slain constable’s funeral was held in Police Lines Charsadda, adding that Imran was buried with full police honour.
Local residents said that one of the attackers was injured in the retaliatory fire and added that his accomplices managed to take him away. There was no confirmation from the police in this regard.

The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement.

The TTP, which has ideological linkages with the Afghan Taliban, executed more than 100 attacks last year, most of which happened after August when the group’s peace talks with the Pakistan government began to falter. The ceasefire was formally ended last year on November 28 by the TTP.

On January 1, a constable was killed when unidentified assailants had opened fire at him in the limits of Omarzai police station.

Officials had said Frontier Reserve Police (FRP) constable Muzammil Shah was travelling on a motorcycle in the Jarra locality of Omarzai when some attackers travelling in a car opened fire at him, killing him instantly.

Also, the Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department has arrested five suspected terrorists belonging to banned organisations during intelligence-based operations across the province, the CTD spokesperson said on Saturday.

The press statement said the arrested terrorists belonged to the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Sipah-i-Sahaba (SS).

One of the terrorists arrested from Lahore was identified as Mehmood Musa — a “key operative of the TTP”, the CTD stated. Other terrorists, who have been rounded up, were identified as Abdul Hanan, Rahmat Ali, Muawiya, and Muhammad Arabi.

The department claimed that the terrorists had planned a “large-scale terror attack” in the province, adding that the operations to nab the outlaws were conducted in Lahore, Bahawalpur, and Sheikhupura.

Four cases have been registered against the suspects and they have been shifted to an unidentified location for investigation, the CTD said.

(With additional input from News Desk)