Checkpoint attack: Three policemen injured in ambush

Badhaber and Mattani police stations covers the territory where militants have become active in past couple of years.

PESHAWAR:

Three constables of Badhaber police were critically injured when their vehicle was attacked in the suburban Sheikh Muhammadi village on Friday evening.

A police vehicle, from Shahab Khel checkpoint, was on a routine patrol when unidentified militants ambushed it, leaving constables Tehmash Khan, Raz Muhammad and Yousaf Khan seriously wounded.

The injured were rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital, where one of them is said to be in critical condition.

“The assailants managed to escape after the attack and we have launched a massive search operation in the area to arrest them,” said Tajamul Khan, who is in charge of Shahab Khel checkpoint and was in the vehicle when the incident occurred.

Badhaber and Mattani are two police stations that cover territory where militants have become active in the past couple of years.

Both are adjacent to the Akka Khel sub-tehsil of Khyber Agency, which is considered a safe haven for Lashker-e-Islam militants and the Taliban.

On Wednesday, police defused a five-kilogramme remote-controlled explosive device, which had been planted along the Frontier Road in the jurisdiction area of the same police station.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2012.