Restive frontier: Six killed in Bannu suicide hit

At least six persons, including a policeman killed and 18 others injured.

PESHAWAR: At least six persons, including a policeman were killed and 18 others injured, when a suicide bomber targeted a police van in the southern district of Bannu on Tuesday, police said.

The attack came after weeks of lull in violence in the volatile northwest of the country where security forces are fighting against Taliban militants for the past few years.

The attack took place at Milad Chowk area, in the limits of the Bannu City Police Station, when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a police mobile van, killing at least two policemen and injuring two others, according to witnesses and the police.

District Police Officer (DPO) Bannu Sajjad Khan told reporters at the scene of the attack that the attacker’s target was the Bannu City Police Station. However, due to strict security and vigilance, the bomber could not manage to get close to the police station.

An eight-year-old child and his father, who were riding a rickshaw, were also killed in the attack besides three other pedestrians. The dead were identified as policeman Safir, Falak Nawaz, Sudais, Ihsanullah and Murad Ali.

The police mobile was badly damaged in the attack.

The injured were rushed to the District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ), Bannu. Three of the injured in critical condition were shifted to Peshawar. Heavy contingents of the police rushed to the spot, cordoned off the site and started a search operation in which at least 50 suspects were held.

This is the second suicide attack in Khyber-Pakthunkhwa this month. Earlier, on November 5, a suicide bomber killed at least 70 people and injured several others when he blew himself up amid Friday prayers in the semi-tribal Darra Adamkhel region, south of Peshawar.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2010.