Commander among 2 killed in IBO

Militant in custody leads authorities to three more arrests

SWABI:

Two notorious terrorists have been killed and one arrested in an intelligence based operation (IBO) in the Swabi district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

Police on Saturday claimed to have busted a gang of notorious terrorists planning to attack the police in the district.

Addressing a news conference with District Police Officer Najaul Hassan, Swabi Regional Police Officer (RPO) Muhammad Ali Khan said that on Jan 30, the police killed two terrorists in an IBO and arrested one.

“These terrorists were about to stage large-scale attacks on the police and were involved in extortion, targeted attacks,” he said, adding that the group had brought explosives as well as arms and ammunition from Afghanistan. He said that a threat alert had been issued that the group wanted to attack the polio vaccination teams and traffic police across the district.

“We received information that the terrorists were present at a house on Jan 30 and raided the house. Two terrorists identified as Izhar alias Shiraz alias Abdullah, a resident of Asota Sharif, and Zeenat alias Saqib, a resident of Bajaur, were killed in the exchange of fire,” he informed, saying that one terrorist Saqib, a resident of Bajaur, had been arrested and information obtained from him led the arrest of three more terrorists.

Two policemen had also been injured in the operation which continued for five hours.

The slain terrorist Izhar was a local commander of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and had a head money of Rs2 million, he noted.

He was wanted by the police in five FIRs related to attacks on police stations with grenades as well as targeted attacks on policemen since 2013.

He said AK-47s, pistols, explosives, mobile phones, SIMs and other equipment were recovered from the possession of the gang.

The RPO added that other members of the gang were still at large and the police had initiated a search operation for them.

Two injured in blast

Two people were injured in an improvised explosive device blast in Salarzai tehsil of Bajaur tribal district of K-P on Saturday.

DSP Sattar Khan told The Express Tribune that unidentified miscreants had planted an explosive device adjacent to a house in Salarzai near the Pak-Afghan border.

“It went off with a big bang injuring a woman and her 15-year-old son. Both had been rushed to the hospital. The motive behind the attack is unclear but an investigation has been launched,” the DSP said, adding that both the injured were now stable.

Police registered an FIR against unidentified miscreants.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2023.