Targeted: Under construction check post blown up

PESHAWAR: Armed men blew up an under construction police check post and then looted a toll plaza in Tajabad area late Friday night. According to an official of Pishtakhara police, a dozen armed men planted explosives in the unmanned check post. The ensuing blast razed the structure to the ground. “The miscreants then marched to the nearby PDA Toll Plaza on Ring Road and held eight employees hostage. They snatched mobile phones and Rs500,000 from the toll plaza and fled to Khyber Agency,” said the official. He presumed that the gunmen destroyed the check post to lure police to the area for another attack, but since the police did not visit the site immediately, the culprits targeted the toll plaza and escaped.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2014.