Founder of the banned Lashkar-i-Islam group, Mufti Munir Shakir, succumbed to injuries sustained in a blast outside a mosque within the jurisdiction of the Armar police station in Peshawar district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday. The police said that Mufti Shakir sustained injuries to his left foot as an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was detonated to target him. In the resulting explosion, the radical Islamist cleric and three others named Khushhal, Abid, and Syed Nabi were badly injured. The cleric was known for preaching in such a manner that it led to severe sectarian clashes in Khurram at one time.
A report from Quetta said that an Anti-Terrorist Force (ATF) policeman was killed and six others injured, three of them seriously, in a bomb blast near their vehicle in the Brewery Road area late on Saturday evening. The ATF men were patrolling the area when a powerful IED exploded near their van at Kirani Cross of the Brewery Road. As a result, seven ATF personnel were injured and one of them died some time later.
Several reports were received from different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province regarding several attacks Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP) men launched at the police and the Army. There were at least six attacks on the police in Bannu and Lakki Marwat districts and several policemen sustained injuries, according to Dawn.
Giving details regarding the attack on the cleric, a police spokesman said that Mufti Munir Shakir, a cleric from Kurram Agency, decided to settle in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency in 2004 after being thrown out of his hometown for inciting sectarian hatred. After some time, he launched a local radio station and again started gathering supporters under his hard-line interpretation of Islam.
Meanwhile, two soldiers were killed in two different encounters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. On the other hand, TTP men launched attacks on police at six different locations in Lakki Marwat and Bannu districts, the first attack reported at 8.30 am in broad daylight and the last late in the evening after Iftaar hours.
In one encounter, security forces carried out an intelligence-based operation in the Mohmand district during which seven terrorists were killed after troops “effectively engaged” them at their location. However, the ISPR added that Malakand district’s Havildar Muhammad Zahid, 37, and Chitral district’s Sepoy Aftab Ali Shah, 26, were killed in this engagement.
In another encounter that took place in Maddi, Dera Ismail Khan district, troops exchanged fire with terrorists, killing two of them. The ISPR said that weapons and ammunition were recovered from the slain terrorists, who were involved in numerous terrorist activities.
Police in Lakki Marwat and Bannu districts repulsed several attacks by terrorists.
“A police post located in Abbasa Khattak area of the Kurrum Par belt, Lakki Marwat district, came under attack at about 8:30am on Saturday,” said a police official, adding that militants used heavy weapons in an attempt to take over the building. The ambush was repulsed as the policemen responded effectively.
The official said that the district police officer led reinforcements from the police lines to the trans-river area, adding that armoured personnel carriers, the Quick Response Force (QRF), and policemen from the nearby police stations were also dispatched to the mountainous terrain to hunt down the assailants. He said that armed villagers also came out of their houses to assist the police.
Like Lakki Marwat, the Bannu district police also fended off militants on Friday night, as two police stations and a police post were stormed. A police official said that the militants hurled hand grenades at the police station in Ghoriwala and a police post in Khujari.
In Bajaur, a police official was among four people injured in an attack targeting the SHO in Inayat Kallay bazaar. Rescue 1122 and police said the incident occurred just before Iftar when some unidentified armed men started firing at the vehicle of Lowi Sam police station SHO Bacha Rahman, leaving a policeman along with three civilians wounded.
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