Lucky number: Seven police officials escape IED blast

SHO Saadullah has dodged death thrice.

BANNU: Seven police personnel, including the SHO of Mandan police station of Bannu district, were injured when their vehicle was hit by a roadside explosion on Thursday.

This was the third time that SHO Saadullah Khan has escaped a bid on his life in the turbulent Bannu which borders North Waziristan Agency where Operation Zarb-e-Azb is going on against militants.

A police official said that SHO Saadullah was on routine patrol in the area with his team. “When the patrol vehicle reached Kinger Pul area, militants detonated the IED planted along the road,” he said.

SHO Saadullah and policemen Majid Nawaz, Afsar Ali Khan, Wahidullah, Farmanullah, Sadiq Ahmad and Jalal Khan were injured in the blast, while the patrol vehicle was damaged, the official said. He added that the injured were rushed to the hospital by the area residents and other policemen who had rushed to the site for rescue.

The official claimed that police have also killed an alleged militant Shakilur Rehman, resident of Miryan who was trying to escape from the area after the incident.

Later huge contingents of police and security forces cordoned off the area and started a search operation.

This was the third time that SHO Saadullah survived an attack in Bannu. Earlier serving as SHO Bannu Township police station, he had set up a checkpoint to intercept a suicide bomber going to Peshawar through Bannu. The intelligence report proved correct and the suicide bomber showed up only to blow himself up at the checkpoint, killing 15 people including police personnel and injuring several other, including Saadullah.

In another incident militants tried to blow him up with rockets when he was SHO of Hawaid police station.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2015.