Two policemen die, 12 hurt in Pakistan suicide bomb attack

ISLAMABAD - Two policemen were killed and 12 others, including 10 policemen, were injured in a suicide bomb attack Monday on a police check-post in northwest Pakistan.

The attack took place in the Mansoor Shah police lines in the Swabi district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

District police officer (DPO) Abdullah Khan said that “one suicide bomber blew himself up at the check-post when the security officials tried to stop him”.

“The second suicide bomber was killed by the firing of security officials,” he said, adding that “two police constables manning the post died, while 10 others were injured”.

District coordination officer Sajid Shah said that “two citizens passing by the check-post were also injured in the blast”.

He said that “four attackers had targeted the police lines and two of them managed to flee”.

“Exchange of fire took place between the security officials and terrorists before the blast,” he added.

“If the bombers would have managed to sneak through, the casualties could be much more because the compound in the police lines also housed residential quarters,” said Khan.

“Security has been beefed up and raiding teams have been dispatched to search for the escaped terrorists,” he added.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack as yet, while the funeral of two policemen who died in the blast has been performed.

Banned militant outfits like the Taliban have mainly targeted the police and other security agencies during the last few years of the “war against terrorism”.

The security forces are engaged in a major operation in the country’s northwestern areas and the tribal belt, bordering Afghanistan, to flush out the terrorists.

After a major clean-up operation in Swat last year, forces are now taking on the militants in Waziristan and Orakzai agencies.

The war on terror that was initiated by the US and NATO forces against the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2002 has had an impact in Pakistan as well, and thousands of common people and security officials have lost their lives in terror attacks.

(Awais Saleem can be contacted at ians.pakistan@gmail.com)