Spate of violence: Khasadar killed, 11 injured in three IED blasts

TTP Mohmand spokesperson claims responsibility for twin attacks in the agency.

GHALLANAI:

A khasadar official was killed and 11 others were injured in two IED blasts in Mohmand Agency and one in Bajaur Agency on Sunday morning.

An official of the Mohmand political administration, Miraj Khan, said Qader Khan Utmankhel was killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded in Kuz Chamarkand area of Safi tehsil. In the second blast – which occurred in the same area after a while – a Frontier Corps official, Naveed Utmankhel, was injured along with two civilian passersby, Abdul Aziz and Hassan Jan. The official said the wounded were shifted to a nearby hospital in Safi.

The political administration launched a search operation in the area and arrested 10 suspects under the ‘collective responsibility’ clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Mohmand has claimed responsibility for the attack in a tweet by their spokesperson Omar Khorasani.

In a separate incident, a woman and seven levies officials, including quartermaster Gulzar, Fazal, Javed and Ihsanullah were injured when an IED went off in Rashakai, Khar tehsil of Bajaur Agency. The incident occurred when the levies officials were on routine patrol. The injured were shifted to Agency Headquarters Hospital, Khar where they were said to be out of danger. The political administration later launched a search operation in the area and closed the main Peshawar-Bajaur Road for two hours.

Escalation

This is the fourth such attack in Mohmand Agency in the past week. Earlier, a primary school was razed to the ground while a security official and peace committee leader’s nephew were killed. This spate of militancy has once again put locals and political administration officials on alert, as they continue to conduct search operations and organise tribal jirgas in an attempt to prevent future attacks.

These jirgas were held last week in Safi and Halimzai, Mohmand, and Mamond in Bajaur. The political administration claims both areas were once strongholds of the Taliban, and were cleared in operations during 2009 and 2011.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2014.