Attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Five Security Personnel Martyred In Separate Incidents

Five security personnel were martyred in two separate incidents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday.

Bajaur police told newsmen that a roadside bomb went off in Mamund tehsil near the Pak-Afghan border. The explosion occurred while a team of security forces and police were conducting a search operation in the area following an earlier explosion that had targeted a vehicle of a contractor. Two people were injured the attack.

Police officials said four personnel —Jamshed and Mudassir of the Frontier Constabulary and police constables Noor Rahman and Samad Khan were killed in the second explosion.

Police said an IED device had been planted before the first explosion. A team of security personnel later reached the site and moved bodies of the deceased to the district headquarters hospital in Khar for formalities.

The site of the explosion has been cordoned off and a search operation was launched to trace those involved in the blast.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. Tribal elders and political figures condemned the incident and asked the authorities to take serious action against the attackers.

Earlier, an army soldier was martyred in a terrorist attack on the Chapri Waziran check post adjacent to North Waziristan tribal district.

Officials said a sepoy of the Thall Scouts — identified as Waqas, 28, a resident of Mansehra —was killed during an exchange of fire that lasted several hours.

The Inter-Services Public Relations said in a statement that troops initiated a prompt response and effectively engaged the terrorists. Area clearance was being carried out to eliminate any terrorists found in the locality.

Talking to The Friday Times about the latest spate of violent attacks, Nizamuddin Salarzai, a resident of Bajaur said, “It took a long time and a lot of resilience for Bajaur to have stadiums with full on cricket matches, markets open at night, and people travelling around without fear. The people of Bajaur also remember the time when the biggest gatherings were for beheadings, markets were for bhatta collection and people were restricted to their homes and government machinery limited to their compounds. Such incidents stir fears of the return of old times and old times are bad for everyone - from the people of Bajaur to the people of Pakistan and, above all, the state.”