"It was my third day of being deployed at the Swabi police station. Shah told me not to be afraid and the situation would be cleared," Police official Noor Zamin Khan. PHOTO: ONLINE / FILE
Two officials of the bomb disposal squad (BDS), Alamgir Shah, 39 and Junaid Khan, 38 were killed on Monday while they were attempting to defuse bombs planted at a school in Jamalabad, Swabi district.
According to police official Noor Zamin Khan, unidentified militants had planted three bombs in Boys Middle School Jamalabad - one along the boundary wall and two inside classrooms.
Khan added around 4:30pm, locals informed police about spotting the bombs, he along with BDS In-charge Sub-Inspector Alamgir Shah and Head Constable Junaid Khan rushed to the site to defuse the explosive devices.
Khan said Shah instructed him to cordon off the area and not to let anyone come within 200 metres of the site. “It was my third day of being deployed as head of Swabi city police station. Shah sent his aide Junaid forward and told me not to be afraid and the situation would be cleared,” Khan said.
“These were Shah’s last words before he went to defuse the bomb at the school’s boundary wall,” Khan narrated.
He added he saw Junaid handling the bomb disposal equipment however as soon as Shah bent over to inspect the device, a huge explosion occurred. “I saw both Shah and Junaid’s bodies lying on the ground,” Khan said.
Police officials rushed towards the two men but they had died on the spot. The bodies were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital while other BDS officials were called in to defuse the remaining bombs in the building.
“I don’t know how many bombs Shah had defused in his career but I always saw him in the field if a complaint was received,” said Faqir Nawaz, who was in frequent contact with the BDS in-charge from the police control headquarters. “He always joked around with us while working. I cannot believe he died while defusing a bomb. He was an expert at it,” Nawaz said.
“The BDS office is close to the police control headquarters. Most of the time Shah was just in the control building ready for any report,” he recalled.
The bodies of both officials were taken to Police Lines around 7pm for funeral prayers. Shah’s body was then shifted to his hometown in Takht Bhai, Mardan for burial while Junaid’s body was sent to Baghecha Dheri in Swabi.
A case has been filed against unidentified militants.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 9th, 2013.
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There is a need to fix the responsibility who were responsible for these cold blooded homicides. Whether they were provided the requisite safety equipments to defuse the bombs? In my opinions if they were not provided the above the IGP and the Home Secretary of the province are the responsible for these killings and must be challaned under section 302 of PPC.
Sad and tragic loss of life. We urgently need to spend more money on education and security in KPK and the federal govt. must show a unified stand on an anti terror policy as soon as possible. Its been in government for long enough to formulate one if it wanted to.