PESHAWAR/QUETTA: A head constable was martyred and a constable suffered injuries when unidentified militants hurled a hand grenade on a check post in Mayar locality of Lower Dir district, while security check posts, a police station, a local hotel and a railway crossing bridge also came under similar attacks in some other districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

After an intense exchange of fire with the militants, security forces and police claimed to have repulsed most of the attacks including those on a check post at Shangla’s tourist spot Yakhtangay, in Jamrud tehsil of Khyber district, a check post and a police station in South Waziristan.

Also, armed motorcyclists hurled hand grenades at a hotel and a bridge near Quetta Railway Station, a check post in the Akhtarabad area on the outskirts of the Balochistan capital and in the Gharibabad bypass area of Noshki district. The attacks in areas of Quetta claimed the life of one person and left at least a dozen, including many children, injured.

The grenade attacks have intensified in the two provinces in recent weeks, mostly targeting security check posts and police stations.

Cop martyred, another injured in Lower Dir; several gun, grenade attacks repulsed

In Lower Dir, head constable Siasat Khan was martyred and constable Hazrat Nabi sustained injuries when militant hurled a hand grenade at the check post in Mayar locality. However, the attackers fled as soon as police personnel returned fire. The injured constable was later shifted to hospital.

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Officials said the martyred police official was a resident of Mayar. He was laid to rest at his ancestral graveyard at Souara Ghundai area after the funeral prayer. A large number of people, including DPO Saleem Abbas Kulachi, SP investigations Rashid Khan, political and social activists from across the area attended the funeral as a police contingent presented salute to the martyr.

On the occasion, the area elders said that all segments of society should unite to maintain peace in the area. They set a 10-day ultimatum for the arrest of the elements involved in the killing of the police official and warned that if the incident was not fully investigated, they would take a decision.

In Khyber district, police claimed to have successfully repulsed two gun and grenade attacks in Jamrud tehsil — on a police post in Sakhi Pul locality and the tehsil compound near a protest camp — on late Tuesday night.

Officials said police retaliated with intense firing which forced attackers to retreat with no damage to the check post. Also, the protest camp established by the Kukikhel tribesmen remained safe, as the police firing forced the attackers to flee in the darkness of the night.

In Shangla, the police repulsed an attack on a check post at Yakhtangay, a tourist spot. Shangla DPO Imran Khan said militants attacked Yakhtangay police post on Tuesday midnight, but a few police personnel deployed at the check point repulsed the attack, forcing militants to escape from the area.

In South Waziristan, a check post and a police station came under attack in the Birmal tehsil on Wednesday. Sources told Dawn the security forces repulsed the attack after an intense exchange of fire with militants. However, locals said, during the attack, a mortar shell hit a house, slightly damaging it.

Quetta, Noshki

An eight-year-old child was killed and 12 other people, including six children, were injured in two hand grenade attacks at a hotel and a bridge near Quetta Railways station, officials said.

“We received 13 injured at the trauma centre and one child who received multiple injuries lost his life,” Dr Wasim Baig, spokesman for the civil hospital told Dawn, adding that the condition of some other injured was also critical.

Also, armed men attacked a security post in Akhtarabad area on the outskirts of Quetta. No human loss was reported in the attack.

Some motorcyclists threw a grenade at a check post in the Gharibabad bypass area of Noshki. However, no casualty was reported.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2024