Four police officials injured in militant attack on Dera Ismail Khan checkpost

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Four policemen were injured when a group of terrorists attacked a checkpost with rockets and grenades in Kulachi tehsil here on Friday, an official said.

District police spokesman Yaqoob Shah told Dawn that an unknown number of militants stormed the Takwarra checkpost early in the morning. He said the police personnel retaliated the attack, and after an intense exchange of fire, the militants escaped the scene.

The spokesman said that four policemen sustained injuries during the exchange of fire.

“About 17 to 18 rocket-propelled grenades and about 25 to 27 hand grenades were used by militants in the attack,” the police spokesman said, adding the police had also launched a search operation in the area.

Soon after the incident, district police officer Mohammad Shoaib Khan and DSP Saddar circle Hafiz Mohammad Adnan arrived at the site and supervised the search operation.

On Thursday, a search and strike operation was conducted in the same Takwarra area, in which six suspects were held along with an SMG rifle, a pistol and 20 cartridges.

On December 25, militants had attacked a mobile van of the Kulachi police station in the same Takwarra area, and also attempted to blow up an armoured personnel carrier of the police with an improvised explosive device.

Separately, two labourers were killed in a firing incident in Qayyum Nawaz Colony of the city, an official said on Friday.

A Cantonment police official said that two labourers, namely Amanullah and Mohammad Arshad, residents of Dhotar area of Paharpur, were fatally attacked by unknown persons when they were digging a plot to build a house.

The police and Rescue 1122 team shifted the bodies to the District Headquarters Teaching Hospital, DI Khan.

The police official said the attackers had a land dispute with the owner of the plot.