No respite: Even in the month of fasting, no respite from drive-by shootings and bomb attacks

Police managed to kill a few attackers but lost more men.

PESHAWAR:

It was a challenging Ramazan as the police continued to come under attack despite their best efforts to control the violence with search and strike operations amid dozens of arrests. Eight policemen and six civilians were killed by militants.

“These terrorists are trying to demoralize the police force and that is why they are attacking policemen in firing as well as bomb blasts,” said a police official while talking to The Express Tribune.

The police official said that in three incidents, police were able to kill the attackers, which was evident from the Banamarhi check post attack in which one motorcyclist was killed and another one was killed on Inqilab Road.

“There are strict instructions to the policemen to always wear their bullet-proof jackets as well as their bullet-proof helmets and stay vigilant,” the police official added.

On July 8 militants believed to be members of the banned Lashkar-e-Islam killed three civilians and injured another in Achini area in the jurisdiction of Sarband police station.

The militants tried to kidnap a man who managed to run away and disappear into one of the houses. The militants went around demanding the residents hand him over and opened fire on them when they refused, killing three people on the spot.

On July 10, two policemen and an attacker were killed when armed men on motorcycles opened fire at Waheedabad’s police vehicles. A policeman was also injured. The attacker was later identified as a resident of Dir and investigators found Pakistani and Afghani currency in his pockets.

On July 15, a junior ranking PAF staffer identified as Amir Shahzad was gunned down by men on motorcycles in Kocha Malik Wazir area in Yakatoot police limits early in the morning.

In another attack, in the afternoon, men on motorcycles attacked Constable Adnan of the Frontier Reserve Police (FRP) who was on guard outside the house of former FRP deputy commandant Gul Wali Khan in Gulbahar. The attackers snatched his AK-47 rifle.

On July 16, a member of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba identified as Zahir Shah was killed in the afternoon. On July 17, a member of the Ahle Tasheeh community, Saba Ali, a jeweler by profession, was killed during Sehri in Mohalla Kashmiri. The attackers managed to escape in both cases.

Similarly, Head Constable Javed Khan was killed and three others were injured when a Yakatoot police mobile was destroyed by a roadside bomb near Superior Science College around Sehri.

On the evening of July 18, men driving by in a car opened fire at a police team who were sitting at a roadside stall for iftari on Ring Road in the jurisdiction of Pishtakahara police station. Four policemen were killed, including an ASI, and an injured guard also succumbed to his injuries in the hospital, pushing the toll in the attack to five later.

Two days later on July 20, two private security guards of the Industrial Estate Security Force were killed inside the Hayatabad Industrial Estate.

On July 23, Constable Muhammad Alam Khan was killed in Shah Qabool area while DSP Badhaber Abid Rehman was injured when his vehicle was attacked on Frontier Road during an inspection of the border check posts.

A day after this, extortionists gunned down a former candidate for NA-46 Khyber Agency Bismillah Jan on Ring Road in Pishtakhara.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2014.