PESHAWAR: The police on Tuesday arrested several injured people from Peshawar hospitals in connection with the killing of their personnel in a militant attack in Badbher area on the outskirts of the provincial capital on Monday.

Sources in local police said all suspects had bullets injuries and belonged to Khyber Agency.

They said police picked up three suspects from Khyber Teaching Hospital and one each from Hayatabad Medical Complex and Lady Reading Hospital.

The police said militants had attacked police late Monday night near the Zangali police checkpost leaving six people, including five policemen, dead.

Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Peashawar Najeebur Rehman told Dawn that often, police interrogated patients admitted to local hospitals with bullets wounds after nighttime encounters with militants.

He said several people had been interrogated over the Monday attack on police.

The SSP said during the search operation after the attack, police had also found a body left by fleeing militants in Janay Khwar area.

He said the FIR of the attack was registered against unidentified militants in Badbher police station.

REPERCUSSION OF SEARCH OPERATION: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General Police Nasir Khan Durrani on Tuesday said the Badbher attack was the repercussion of the police’s search operation against militants on the outskirts of Peshawar.

He was speaking to journalists after the funeral prayers of the slain policemen at the Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines.

The IGP said police had thwarted several attempts of terrorists during the last few days and defused explosive devices in an area adjacent to the Siphon Chowk checkpost and in Urmar village.

He said police were constantly under attack but their morale was high and that they would continue sacrificing their lives for the protection of public life and property.

According to a statement issued by the central police office, a mobile van of Badbher police station was on routine patrolling when militants ambushed it late on Monday.

Two police constables were injured as result of the firing. They were shifted to the nearby Zangali police checkpost.

The in charge of the Zangali checkpost accompanied by his gunman and driver rushed the injured to the hospital in a private vehicle.

In the meantime, an ambulance carrying a patient and coming to Peshawar from Hangu was near the vehicle carrying the injured policemen.

“The militants attacked the ambulance presuming that the ambulance was carrying the injured police officials. When the police officials taking the injured colleagues saw firing on the ambulance, they tried to save the civilian boarding on the ambulance and began firing on militants. In the subsequent armed encounter, the entire police party died,” the statement said.

Reportedly, several militants were also injured in the clash.