PESHAWAR (The Thursday Times) — Police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said on Thursday they had killed a wanted commander of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in Khyber district and repelled an overnight attack on a police station in Dera Ismail Khan, where terrorists rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the gate.
In Khyber, a police operation in the Bara Sheikhan area killed Saifullah, whom police described as a senior commander of Fitna al-Khawarij, the term the state uses for the TTP. He was wanted by police and the Counter Terrorism Department in several cases, a police spokesperson said.
Police said Saifullah had been involved in improvised explosive device attacks on security checkpoints in Ali Masjid and Jamrud, and had spent the past three years in Afghanistan before recently returning to Pakistan. Two policemen suffered minor injuries when a grenade was thrown during the encounter.
Gate blown at Band Korai
In Dera Ismail Khan, attackers rammed an explosives-laden pickup truck into the main gate of the Band Korai police station late on Wednesday night and opened fire with heavy weapons, police said. The blast destroyed the gate and part of the boundary wall and damaged a nearby mosque and several houses.
No police personnel were hurt, and the attackers retreated after police returned fire, the spokesperson said. Senior officers, including the superintendent of police for Paharpur and the CTD superintendent, reached the site, and a search operation is under way.
Pressure on KP police
Inspector General Zulfiqar Hameed praised the officers involved in the Khyber operation, saying operations would continue until the province was cleared “of the last terrorist”.
The incidents come a day after two policemen were martyred in an attack on a police post in Swabi.
