PESHAWAR/LANDI KOTAL: Militants on Thursday attacked two police checkposts in the provincial capital, killing three personnel.

However, two bombs were defused near a police station. The first attack was carried out in Badbher area against a checkpost manned by police and Frontier Constabulary personnel at Maloot Chowk on Frontier Road close to Khyber Agency.

Two police constables, Rehman Wali of Peshawar and Shamsur Rehman of Akbarpura area in Nowshera, died in the attack.

A police official of the Rural Circle told Dawn that a group of militants armed with sophisticated weapons attacked the checkpost from Khyber Agency at 11am.

He said policemen and FC personnel retaliated but Rehman and Shams suffered serious bullet injuries.

The official said one of the policemen died on the spot, while the other was found dead at a nearby place after militants retreated.

Later in the evening, militants hurled a hand grenade inside the Ring Road police post in Paharipura area, injuring four policemen.

A police official said the injured personnel were shifted to Lady Reading Hospital but one of them, Wahid Zaman, died before reaching there. The official said it was not known if attackers were riding a motorcycle or a car.

Also in the day, police detected two bombs planted under the newly-built one-kilometre long Sikandar Khan Khalil Flyover in Gul Bahar area.

The bombs were packed in shopping bags and kept behind the cemented blocks.

The bomb detection led to the suspension of the traffic on the city’s main artery for around an hour.

Police later called in the Bomb Disposal Unit personnel, who exploded the bombs, causing panic among road users and local residents.

According to BDU officials, one of the explosive device weighed around three kilogrammes and the other 500 grammes.

“Had the bombs exploded, they would have damaged the flyover,” an official said.

In the evening, unidentified people fired a rocket in Peshtakhara area damaging part of a house on Abdara Road.

However, it caused no damage to human life.

Police said it seemed that the rocket was fired from adjacent Khyber Agency. They said only the investigation would reveal what the rocket was aimed at.

Seven injured in Khyber Agency

Seven people, including two schoolchildren and a khasadar official, received injuries in different incidents in Khyber Agency on Thursday.

Sources said that three persons were injured when militants targeted a Nato tanker and an official vehicle with improvised explosive devices in Jamrud and Landi Kotal tehsils of the tribal region.

One of the explosive devices was planted along Jamrud bypass road, at a distance of about 500 metres from the offices of political administration, to target a Nato container. Officials said that the driver of the container received minor injuries in the blast.

Minutes later, another device planted along Peshawar-Torkham road at Sadukhel in Landi Kotal targeted an official vehicle carrying a khasadar official. The official, subedar Harkala Khan, and a civilian accompanying him received minor injuries. The vehicle was damaged badly in the blast.

Both the incidents caused suspension of traffic on Peshawar-Torkham road for some time.

Security forces also defused another explosive device planted on the main road in Sur Qamar area of Jamrud.

In Bara, two activists of a local peace committee were wounded in a bomb blast in Gul Mast Tambu area.

Sources said that Dilawar and Sajjad, activists of Shalobar Peace Committee, received injuries when a bomb exploded on a road. Both the injured were shifted to a hospital in Peshawar.

In another incident, Habibullah and Inayat, students of a private school, were wounded when a mortar shell fell on their school in Sheen Drand area.