Rising terrorism: 19 dead in attacks in K-P, Orakzai

Police kill six militants in attack on Bannu police station.

HANGU:

A deadly wave of suicide attacks, bombings and gun attacks across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and extending into the tribal territory of Lower Orakzai Agency left at least 19 people dead and dozens more injured on Thursday.

At least seven people, including security personnel, were killed and 11 others were injured when a suicide attacker rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a security checkpoint in Hangu district’s Thal tehsil. Around 300kg of explosives were used in the blast, security officials said.

According to a senior security official, a policeman on duty at the Speen Thal checkpoint waved a vehicle, en-route to Hangu from North Waziristan Agency, for a routine check around 5:45pm. The driver of the vehicle, however, drove it into the checkpoint. All security personnel manning the checkpoint were killed in the resultant blast, along with some civilian bystanders.



There were conflicting reports regarding the exact number of casualties from the blast. According to the official number of casualties provided by senior security officials, seven people were killed and 11 others were injured in the blast.

However, eyewitnesses and medical staff claimed that nine people were killed and 12 others were injured in the attack. They identified the deceased as Gul Muhammad and his daughters Aisha (6) and Asiya (12), Gul Sahib Khan, policemen Amin and Muhammad Farman, and Levies personnel Syed Anwar and Javaid.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Hangu DPO Mian Saeed Khan said that a heavy police contingent rushed to the site immediately after the incident. The casualties were shifted to the Civil and Combined Military Hospitals in Thal, he said.

Twin blasts in Orakzai

Up to six people were killed and 26 others were injured in twin remote-controlled blasts in the Lower Orakzai Agency.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Orakzai political agent Mehmud Aslam said the first explosion occurred around 8:45am. The roadside bomb exploded near a passenger van heading to Peshawar from the Khyber Agency, killing four on the spot and injuring 12 others.



He continued that a second bomb exploded around 11:13am, about 300 yards from the first one, near another vehicle en route to Peshawar. Two people were killed and 14 others were injured in the second blast, Aslam added.

The PA said security forces and Khasadar personnel launched a search operation in the area following the incidents and arrested close to 10 tribesmen under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation.

Six militants die in attack on police station

Six militants were killed and a security official was injured in an attack on a police station at the outskirts of Bannu on Thursday.

Talking to journalists, Bannu deputy inspector general (DIG) Nisar Tanoli said the six militants attacked the Miryan police station at around 5:30am.

According to him, the militants, all of whom were wearing suicide vests, started by opening fire on the security personnel at the station. After the security personnel retaliated, four of the attackers detonated their vests, injuring one official, he maintained. The remaining two were gunned down by security forces, the DIG added.

Tanoli said the injured security official was moved to the Bannu Combined Military Hospital (CMH), where his condition was declared stable. The DIG added that the two undetonated suicide vests were later defused by the BDS.

Talking about the identity of the attackers, Tanoli claimed three of them appeared to be foreigners. The bodies of the other three attackers were mutilated beyond recognition due to the blast, he added.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesperson Ehsanulluh Ehsan claimed responsibility for the attack, adding that it was launched to avenge the deaths of nine TTP militants at the hands of security forces on December 31, 2012 in the Pir Kallay area of Miramshah, North Waziristan.

Separately, militants partially destroyed a police checkpoint in Karak district on Thursday. According to Karak DPO Sajjad Khan, the militants assaulted the Kundi checkpoint with rockets and heavy arms. They escaped after police retaliated, leaving behind a large cache of arms and explosives.

(WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS IN BANNU AND KARAK)


Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2013.