PESHAWAR: One policeman was killed and two others sustained bullet injuries in two different attacks in the provincial metropolis on Wednesday.

The first incident took place at the shrine of Shah Qabool in Peshawar City where unidentified motorcyclists sprayed a policeman with bullets. The assailants managed to escape and also took away the official rifle of the killed constable identified as Alam Khan.

Officials said that the constable was performing duty near the shrine when two men riding a motorcycle and armed with pistols opened firing on him. The constable received six bullets and was shifted to Lady Reading Hospital but he could not survive.

They said that the deceased was accompanied by another policeman but at the time of attack he was in washroom. Police launched search operation to arrest the attackers but got no clue so far, they added.

In another incident, terrorists targeted a police patrolling party in Shin Drang area on Frontier Road the in limits of Mattani police station and inured DSP Abidur Rehman and his driver Shakeel Khan.

The injured policemen were rushed to Lady Reading Hospital where their condition was stated to be stable.

Talking to journalists after the funeral prayers of the killed constable at Malik Saad Khan Police Lines, Capital City Police Officer Ijaz Ahmed Khan said that the terrorists changed their modus operandi from carrying out bomb blasts to targeted attacks. Their main target was law-enforcers, he said.

He said that police were already performing 12 to 16 hours duty but they were fully alert to foil the nefarious designs of the anti-state elements.

However, Mr Khan said, police could not control crimes without the help of people.

The body of the killed policeman was handed over to his relatives for burial at his ancestral graveyard in Tarnab, Charsadda.

BLAST: Unidentified terrorists targeted the residence of a businessman in Hayatabad with a hand grenade on Wednesday.

Officials said that unidentified motorcyclists hurled a hand grenade at the residence of Fawad before Iftar that caused damage to the house.

The inmates of the house remained unhurt in the attack. They said that Fawad was owner of a restaurant on University Road. The complainant was yet to nominate anyone in the FIR, they added. —Bureau Report

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2014