Two security personnel and 15 militants were killed in major back-to-back attacks in retaliation to the killing of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, on the outskirts of Peshawar late on Tuesday night. Peshawar police chief Liaqat Ali Khan told Pakistan Today that 80 to 100 militants armed with rockets and mortars had attacked a checkpost at Sangu from three sides at around 11.30pm on Tuesday.
“Then they carried out a big attack early in the morning. We also called in reinforcements to counter the attack and we did it,” a Peshawar security official told Reuters. Khan said the attack, which was quite severe, killed two soldiers and injured five others. However, the joint squads of police and the Frontier Constabulary succeeded in repelling the attack, he said. The fighting went on for nearly four hours, said Khan, adding that 15 militants were also killed.
He said the militants had removed the bodies of their fighters and some of the injured were hiding with their relatives in the same area. Although police did not identify the militant group responsible for the daring assault, militants affiliated with the Lashkar-e-Islam are active in the border area between Peshawar and Bara, Khyber Agency. The group has made several attempts to destroy the checkpost in question, but has been repelled every time by security forces.
Eight security personnel had been on duty for the first attack, but police scrambled extra weapons and reinforcements of 40 officers before the next attack, which took about 40 minutes to fend off, police told AFP. The attackers threw hand grenades and fired rockets at the checkpoint, while police retaliated with guns, mortar fire and rockets. The attackers came from Khyber and fled back in the same direction after staging what appeared to be a carefully planned hit under cover of night.
“They traveled in vehicles towards the check-post, then left the vehicles in the tribal area and reached the check-post on foot using ill-frequented routes,” police official Ejaz Khan told AFP. The funeral prayers of the policeman and Frontier Constabulary man killed in the fighting was offered at Police Lines and their bodies were sent to their native villages for burial.
