- Four policemen killed as miscreants spray police van with bullets in Quetta
- Two cops killed, six others injured in suicide blast targeting FRP deputy commandant in Peshawar
Four policemen were killed on Thursday in Quetta’s Pashtunabad area when unidentified assailants fired shots at a police mobile while two cops were killed and six others were injured in a suicide blast in Peshawar.
According to the police, armed motorcyclists sprayed bullets at a patrolling police mobile in the Manan Chowk area of Pashtunabad. Two policemen died on the spot while two others succumbed to their injuries on the way to Civil Hospital in Quetta.
A heavy contingent of police and Frontier Corps personnel reached the crime scene.
The attack comes a week after four policemen were killed on Pashtunabad’s Mullah Salam Road while on a routine patrol.
Separately, at least two policemen were killed and six others were injured Thursday morning in a suicide blast targeting the vehicle of Frontier Reserve Police (FRP) Deputy Commandant Malik Tariq in Peshawar’s Hayatabad area.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Mian Saeed confirmed the suicide blast near Tariq’s vehicle when he was on his way to the FRP office. “The bomber was on a motorcycle which he rammed into Tariq’s vehicle,” SSP Saeed told reporters at the scene.
Saeed added that it had yet to be determined whether the bomber was wearing a suicide vest or his motorcycle was packed with explosives.
According to hospital sources, the injured included two policemen, two passers-by, driver of the vehicle and FRP deputy commandant. The vehicle was completely destroyed in the blast. The dead were shifted to Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar.
Rescue teams and security personnel reached the site of attack, and launched an investigation into the blast.
Rana Umar Hayat, another senior police official, confirmed the attack and casualties, saying that Tariq was in a critical condition in a government hospital.
Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) Additional Inspector General Shafqat Malik said five to six kilogrammes of explosive material was used in the making of the bomb.
Banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in a statement claimed responsibility for the suicide blast. However, the claim could not be independently verified.