PESHAWAR, Oct 15: A police superintendent and five other security personnel were killed and 11 injured in an attack on a police post by a large number of militants in Mattani area, near Peshawar, on Sunday night.

The militants beheaded Peshawar Rural Circle SP Khurshid Khan and escaped with his head, an official said.

The attackers set the Ghaziabad post on fire and took away official weapons. Two trucks, an armoured personnel carrier, a car and three motorcycles were torched.

The militants attacked the post with heavy weapons. The attack was so severe that security personnel had to vacate the building and move to nearby trenches.

“The personnel left the post for safety after several of them had sustained bullet injuries,” sources said.

The SP, who had been promoted to the post only one and a half months ago, rushed to the place along with two gunmen after getting a distress call from injured colleagues.

“By the time he arrived, the personnel had abandoned the post without informing him and he was caught unawares. The militants seized him and beheaded him. They took away his head,” an official said.

His bodyguards, Inayatullah Khan and Mohin Khan, and Rasool Khan, Mohammad Yar and Hukam Khan of the Frontier Constabulary were shot dead.

The post is close to Bara’s Akakhel area in Khyber Agency and the Kohat Frontier Region. Bara has been under curfew for a long time following a series of military and paramilitary operations.

Several clean-up operations have also been carried out in the Frontier Regions of Peshawar and Kohat but an official conceded that militants from the tribal regions patrolled the roads, sometimes wearing police uniform. He said several warnings had been issued but no action was taken to curb them. Another official revealed that the Special Branch of police had warned on Saturday of the possibility of an attack on the Ghaziabad post.

He said a Frontier Constabulary platoon and 10 policemen had been deployed at the post and 30 personnel were there when it was attacked.

Four policemen and seven Frontier Constabulary men were injured.

The bodies and the injured were taken to the Lady Reading Hospital where two of them were said to be in a critical condition.

One injured policeman said it was a surprise attack from three sides by over 100 heavily armed militants.

Mr Khurshid was the second SP killed this year. Abdul Kalam Khan died in a suicide attack on March 15 at Peshtakhara Chowk.Funeral prayers for the personnel were offered in Malik Saad Khan Police Lines.

The SP’s body was taken to Dagai village in Charsadda for burial in his native graveyard.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, provincial assembly Speaker Kiramatullah Khan, police chief Mohammad Akbar Khan Hoti, Chief Secretary Ghulam Dastagir and a large number of police officers attended the funeral prayers.

The information minister said the provincial government would soon launch an operation against the terrorists.