Policeman among four killed in Hangu, Swat, D.I. Khan militant attacks

HANGU-

Militants Monday killed four people in attacks targeting police and Amn Committee volunteer in Pakistan’s restive northwest, officials said.

A suicide bomber killed one policeman in Hangu district, while two brothers of a police station chief died in a separate attack on his home in Dera Ismail Khan.

“A group of up to six militants attacked Tal police station in Hangu district and one of the attackers blew himself when police intercepted them and responded to firing,” district police chief Anwar Saeed Kundi told a foreign news agency.

“A policeman was martyred and another was wounded,” he said and added that the remaining attackers fled after the suicide bombing.

Meanwhile, security forces launched a search operation in Tal tehsil of Hangu, arresting at least 40 suspects.

Separately militants attacked the home of a police station chief in Dera Ismail Khan, some 240 kilometres south of Peshawar, and killed his two brothers, district police chief Sadiq Baloch said.

Police officer Saifur Rehman was not at home when the attack occurred, he added.

Baloch said Rehman’s brothers were killed in revenge for an operation Sunday in which one militant was killed and another wounded.

Nobody claimed the responsibility for the attacks but Taliban militants routinely target police and security forces in area.

In a separate attack, a member of Amn Committee, identified as Zahir Shah, was gunned down in Swat’s Kabal Tehsil.