Fear grips NWFP as 12 killed, 34 injured in terror acts

October 15, 2009

Rashid Faraz Khattak

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Twelve people, including a minor were killed and 34 others injured, some of them seriously, in separate car suicide bombing in the two districts of NWFP, Kohat and Peshawar, on Thursday.

Eleven persons including three policemen were killed and 22 others sustained injuries when an explosives-laden vehicle hit the building of Saddar police station located in the military area of Kohat. Later in the afternoon, another car bombing incident took place at Gulshan-e-Rahman Colony in the suburbs of the Peshawar city, leaving a seven-year-old child dead and 12 other people including two women injured.

The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack on Saddar Police station in Kohat. The claim was made by the outlawed TTP central spokesman Azam Tariq in Darra Adamkhel.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, Kohat region, Abdullah Khan, told reporters that a young man ranging between 20 to 25 years blew up his explosives-laden double cabin vehicle just outside the main gate of the Saddar police station, killing 11 people including three policemen Fayazul Hasnain, Muhammad Noor and Khurshid and injuring 22 others.

The other victims were identified as Javed, resident of Staff Line in Kohat Cantonment, Tariq and Baseer Khan, residents of Pehlwan Banda, Abdul Wali from the Cantonment area, Tahir-ur-Rehman from Billitang village and Arshad Ali, resident of Kotki Marchowngi, sources in the hospital said, while two other bodies were disfigured beyond recognition.

The injured included four cops and two women. They were identified as assistant sub- inspector of police Munawwar Khan, the police station muharrar Asmatullah, police constables Ajmal and Akhtar Hassan, Abida and Ishrat Parveen, Hamza Abdullah, Romaan, Nazeer, Rahatullah, Mewa Deen, Shahab Ahmad, Zeeshan Ahmad, and an accused in the custody of Saddar police Darwesh.

Some school-going children passing by the spot were also injured and rushed to the hospital along with other wounded persons. However, their names could not be ascertained.

The blast was so intense that it destroyed northern part of the police station building, eight vehicles including a police van, and wall of the Pakistan Air Force’s Officers Mess, said the DIG of the Kohat region, adding that 100-kilogram of explosive material was used in the bombing.

The police station is adjacent to the official residence of the district police officer and is sited about 30 metres from the main Army checkpoint leading to the Kohat garrison. Office of the district coordination officer and several other ranking government officers, a private college and the Virtual University are located in the area.

Eyewitnesses said the suicide bomber was making his way through the barriers to enter the police building. However, on his failure to do so he exploded the vehicle in front of the police station’s main entrance. The bomber was said to be a young man with small beard.

Security forces cordoned off the area soon after the blast and started search operation. During the operation, the bomb disposal squad also defused a hand-grenade.

Abdullah Khan informed the local newsmen that they had found body parts of the suicide bomber and sent these for the Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid (DNA) tests.

The other explosion that took place at around 5 pm destroyed a complete block of the residential Gulshan-e-Rehman colony located south of the city on Kohat Road. Most of the residential blocs in the residential colony developed cracks while windowpanes of houses in the nearby villages were shattered.

Capital city police officer, Liaqat Ali, told reporters the bomb was planted in a car that was parked outside the flat of Shahjehan, driver of the NWFP chief minister.

Seven-year-old son of Shahjehan, Hamza, died in the powerful blast while 12 other residents of the colony, including two females, were rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) in a wounded condition.

Over 300 families mostly of government officers are residing in Gulshan-e-Rahman colony.

“Two blocks of the colony were severely damaged in the blast. The residents have been directed to vacate the building until these are technically examined,” said a report issued by the office of the district coordination officer (DCO) Peshawar, Sahibzada Mohammad Anis. The occupants would be provided temporary accomodation at alternative places. The report confirmed the death of one person and injuries to 10 others.

An eyewitness and resident of the same colony, Nasir, said he was present inside his flat when he heard a massive blast. “I held my daughter to take her to a safe place as I thought the building had been attacked with rocket,” he recalled. Nasir later rushed to the site of the blast and retrieved two wounded young girls from the rubble.

Fearing reaction from the militants against the looming military operation in Waziristan, the people of the province had been scared since morning. The scare increased after terrorists first struck in Kohat and then in three parts of Lahore, provincial metropolis of Punjab.

Only a day earlier the blast in Gulshan-e-Rahman colony, police had claimed recovering a bomb from a locked house in the nearby Madina Colony.