GILGIT: Over three dozen suspected terrorists wearing Pak army uniform stormed a police station in Diamer district on Friday morning, tied the policemen with ropes and took away weapons, uniform, wireless sets, and other valuables from the cops.

The Dodishal police station is situated a kilometer from the Karakuram Highway at the border of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan regions.

Police sources told Dawn that 36 to 40 unidentified armed men wearing army uniform stormed the police station at about 1:30am on Friday. The sources said that only six police personnel were present at duty when the police station was attacked, adding that the assailants tied the personnel with ropes and thrashed some over resistance.

The attackers took away 10 guns, three pistols, thousands of rounds, wireless telephone sets, police uniforms and other belongings of the police personnel.

Overcome cops and take away weapons, other valuables from them

The sources said that the attackers were speaking Urdu, Pashto and Shina languages and also accused the policemen of being the puppets of America. They said that other police stations of Diamer district were informed after three hours of the incident.

GB home secretary, Attaul Rahman, told Dawn that additional police force had been sent to Diamer district from Gilgit for catching the culprits and investigating the incident.

He said that Inspector General of Police, Saleem Bathi, was leading a search operation in Diamer district and adjoining areas to nab the outlaws.

Dawn tried to contact the police officials at the scene, but to no avail as the area is remote and has no communication facilities.

The region’s home secretary informed that GB had requested the KP government and the security forces to help arrest the terrorists. Security at the Karakuram Highway has also been enhanced to provide protection to the travelers, he said.

Mr Rehman said that all the information would be made public once the investigation into the case completed.

This is the fourth attack to have been carried out by terrorists wearing Pakistan army uniform.

In February, 18 passengers belonging to Shia sect, who were travelling on KKH from Rawalpindi to Gilgit, were gunned down in Kohistan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

In a similar incident in August 2012, 19 Shia community members were gunned down at Lalusar near of Babusar Top while going to Rawalpindi from Gilgit. In June 2013, 10 foreign tourists, including one Pakistani guide, were killed at Nanga Parbat base camp in Diamer district.

The GB home secretary said that it seemed that the same group was involved in the latest incident.

A case against unknown attackers was registered at the Dodishal police station.

Published in Dawn, July 5th , 2014