5 hours, 4 attacks: IEDs shake up Mohmand as former senator escapes attack

Five injured; security forces arrest 17 under collective responsibility clause of FCR.

GHALLANAI:

With four improvised explosives going off before 12:30pm on Monday, Mohmand Agency has not seen the most peaceful of starts to the week.

In the morning, former senator Malik Abdul Wahid’s motorcade came under fire some three kilometres west of the agency headquarters Ghallanai.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Wahid’s son and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas Organiser Malik Daud Khan said the former senator was returning from Ghallanai when an improvised explosive device planted by unidentified militants went off near his vehicle on Mohmand-Bajaur Road in Durba Khel.

Wahid survived the attack with minor injuries while his vehicle was completely destroyed. Daud confirmed a brother of his was injured in the attack. Wahid, who remained senator from 1985 to 1994, belongs to a family of influential political leaders. His father Malik Shehzada was a member of General Ziaul Haq’s infamous Majlis-e-Shoora and was killed in Islamabad over a personal enmity. Wahid’s nephew Bilal Rehman is currently an MNA from Mohmand while another, Hilal Rehman, is a senator and the chairman of the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions standing committee in the Upper House.

Another IED also went off in the same area during the same hour. However, no casualties or injuries were reported.

On the radar

Two more IEDs exploded in the agency’s Safi tehsil before the clock struck 12:30pm. Peace committee members were targeted this time around. Talking to The Express Tribune over the phone, a Safi tehsildar said the first attack occurred at 8am when a bomb went off near former peace committee leader Subidar Safi’s vehicle in Ziarat Khwar, Lakaro.

As a result, three committee volunteers were injured while the vehicle was partially damaged. They were rushed to Bajaur Agency Headquarters hospital. The next IED hit the motorcycle of fellow peace committee members who were carrying food for their injured comrades.

The former peace committee leader, who is also a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz activist, left the tehsil in January 2008 when the political administration abolished his volunteer force.

Following the back-to-back explosions, security forces cordoned the areas off and conducted search operations. As many as 17 tribespeople were arrested under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation till the filing of this report.

Year of peace?

The spate of attacks raised questions as the agency’s political administration had declared 2015 the year of peace. Only a few hours before these attacks, unidentified men launched an assault on transporter Baghdad Shah’s residence in Durba Khel, Ghallanai on Sunday night. During the exchange of fire, Shah’s watchman Jameel Khan, a resident of Charsadda, died.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2015.