Daily Times

Three cops among four were martyred in a late Tuesday night attack on a police checkpost in Kohat, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

It was reported that assailants opened fire at a checkpost situated near the Lachi toll plaza along the Indus Highway. The martyred cops were identified as lance head constables Amjad and Junaid, and head constable Waqar. The fourth victim was identified as Noor Muhammad, a resident of Lakki Marwat.

Security personnel claimed to have cordoned off the area with the help of a heavy contingent, while a search for the attackers was still on. This is the third attack in three days targeting police personnel in K-P. A day earlier at least two policemen deployed for polio duty in the Teri Ram area of Bannu district were martyred while three others injured during a gunfight with unidentified armed men. One of the three attackers was killed, the other was taken into custody in an injured condition while the third managed to escape.

According to details, the policemen were on polio duty within the remits of Meeryan police station when three unidentified attackers riding a motorcycle opened fire at them. As the police retaliated, one of the attackers got injured, while the other two hid in a house nearby. Bannu Deputy Superintendent of Police Qasim Ali Khan and District Police Officer Syed Iftikhar Shah reached the spot along with a heavy contingent of police force, surrounded the area, and started a search operation. “The operation against the terrorists hiding in the house lasted for almost six-and-a-half hours,” the DSP said.

Two days ago, on January 8, five policemen were martyred while 27 people injured in a blast near a police van in the Mamund tehsil of K-P’s Bajaur district. According to a senior government official in Bajaur, “A police truck transporting around 25 policemen for anti-polio drive duties was targeted by an improvised explosive device.” According to details, 22 of the injured were shifted to the Khar District Headquarters Hospital from where 10 of them, who were seriously wounded, were referred to a Peshawar medical facility.

The polio campaign in the area was suspended due to the blast while rescue teams in Mohmand and Lower Dir districts were put on alert. The banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack.