At least four people were killed and nine others were injured as terrorists stormed the District Police Office in Dera Ismail Khan on Saturday afternoon in a brazen gun-and-bomb attack, which was foiled by timely action from police and security forces.
All four terrorists were killed and District Police Officer (DPO) Sohail Khalid Raana remained safe. The terrorists, three of whom reportedly wore police uniform, stormed the DPO Office located in the cantonment area of the city and hurled hand-grenades at the policemen inside, followed by bursts of gunfire. A gun-battle ensued as the policemen retaliated and contingents of army and police rushed to the site to provide backup.
The fighting continued for around an hour and ended only after the terrorists had been killed. Though Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said three policemen were killed and there were no civilian casualties, eyewitnesses and doctors said two of the victims were civilians and two were policemen.Hussain told Pakistan Today that all four militants had been killed. Three of them blew themselves up with suicide vests, while the fourth was shot dead by security forces during the encounter. Hussain said the situation was now under control and fresh contingents of police and paramilitary soldiers had been deployed at the site of the attack.
“Army and police units have entered the police station and a search operation is over,” Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief Akbar Hoti told AFP. “We have recovered bodies of four militants, they were all wearing suicide vests,” he said. “We are checking the identity of the civilian casualties to ascertain if they included any militants,” he added. Police intercepted the militants before they could enter the main offices, he said. So far, there have been no claims of responsibility for the attack, but officials believe Taliban militants were involved.
