PESHAWAR – A suicide car bombing and an ambush by militants targeting police in the northwest of the country killed 15 people including nine officers on Thursday. In Hangu, a suicide car bombing targeting police killed nine people, including three officers and injured more than 30. Officials said police patrolling the Hangu bypass road attempted to stop a car reportedly loaded with 300 kilogrammes of explosives, but the bomber hit a police van killing nine people.
Hangu police chief Rashid Khan told reporters that nine people were killed and 30 others injured in the blast. “The bomber… blew himself up when a police patrol went close to the car for a security check in Hangu,” senior local police official Abdul Rasheed said. “Nine people including three policemen were martyred and 31 wounded in the attack, which targeted the police. The injured include 12 women and four children.”
The officials said 25 people, including policemen were in hospitals in Hangu and Kohat, adding that condition of several of the injured was critical. Officials from the bomb disposal squad said around 600kg of explosive were used in the suicide attack. Security forces started a search operation in the area and arrested some suspects.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani strongly condemned the attack and “deplored the loss of lives and declared it an inhuman act”, AFP quoted an official statement as saying. Soon after the suicide attack in Hangu, militants attacked security forces’ checkpost in Tora Bandai. However, officials claimed that the attack was repulsed and five militants were killed.
There are no details of losses to the security forces in the attack. Also on Thursday, suspected militants ambushed a vehicle carrying levies and killed six and injured three personnel in Alamgodar near Khyber Agency’s Bara. Six Khasadar officials were martyred after unidentified gunmen fired at their patrol vehicle. Four of the killed were identified as Mehboob, Omar, Noor Janan and Abdul Wahid.
Meanwhile, police in Peshawar said some unidentified gunmen opened fire at a police party, killing Traffic Inspector Qaiser Ali Gillani on the spot. In a separate attack, an oil tanker, supplying fuel for NATO forces in Afghanistan, was blown up with explosives in a busy bordering market of Karkhano Hayatabad in Agency. However, there was no report of human loss in the attack, police and rescue sources said.
Inputs included from AFP
