Investigation begins in Pishtakhara suicide blast

Roadside attack injures 8 in Lower Kurram; schools destroyed in Kohat.

SWABI/ HANGU/ KOHAT/ PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar police have launched an investigation into Thursday’s suicide attack in the in the Pishtakhara area, which killed senior police official Abul Kalam Khan.  Meanwhile, in a spate of violence on Friday, a roadside attack on a passenger van injured eight in Lower Kurram, while two schools were destroyed by militants in Kohat and Swabi districts.

Superintendent of Police (SP)-Rural Abul Kalam Khan was killed and four people, including his gunman and driver, were injured in the attack on Thursday.

A police team said that they are still investigating the matter and an eyewitness has been quizzed.

“We have debriefed the people, including a taxi driver who was present at the time of the blast, but there has been no breakthrough, thus far,” police sources told The Express Tribune, adding that the body parts of the bomber had been sent for a DNA test.

Kurram attack

Elsewhere, six people, including a security personnel, were injured in two separate incidents of violence in the Kurram tribal region.

Five passengers, including a woman, were wounded in a roadside bomb blast. The area has suffered continued sectarian violence, and the fragile calm is kept together by a peace treaty between Shia and Sunni tribes in the area.

Separately, militants attacked a security check post in the Shaheedanu Dandh area in Lower Kurram, injuring a security official. The militants also abducted a security man, officials confirmed. Later, security forces claimed to have killed eight militants in retaliatory action.

Two schools blown up

Two state-run schools were blown up in separate incidents in Kohat and Swabi districts, officials said. The Government Primary School (for boys) in Koteri village, Kohat, was destroyed in a bomb explosion late Thursday night. Bomb Disposal Squad in-charge Muhammad Akbar Khan told The Express Tribune that 20 kilogrammes of explosives had been used in the bomb attack .

Separately, the Government High School, Kaddi in Swabi district was blown up early Friday morning. Two rooms were destroyed, but the school watchman escaped unhurt.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2012.