KOHAT: Three militants, a suicide bomber among them, and a policeman were killed in a fierce clash which followed an attack on a police station in Hangu district on Monday. And on Sunday night, two brothers of a police official were shot dead in their house in Dera Ismael Khan.

The Ansarul Mujahideen wing of the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which operates in Hangu, Thall and Kohat, has claimed responsibility for the attack on Thall police station.

According to police, 30 to 40 militants using heavy weapons and grenades stormed the police station at about 5:45am. A policeman was killed and four others were injured.

Police fired back and a suicide bomber who had failed to enter the police station because of stiff police resistance blew himself up after having been injured.

The injured policemen -- Umer Saeed, Mirjang, Abdul Hameed and Zahir Shah -- were admitted to the District Headquarters Hospital in Hangu.

The body of the slain policeman, Sabir Nawaz of Karak, was sent to his native town where he was buried in his ancestral graveyard.

Sources said the injured policemen had been hit by splinters of grenades lobbed by the attackers.

While chasing the militants, police spotted another suicide bomber but he jumped into a vehicle and escaped with his accomplices, DSP Falak Nawaz Khan said.

Police and army personnel cordoned off the area and mounted a search during which 12 suspects were arrested.

Police said the head and legs of the suicide bomber had been found and sent, along with the bodies of two other attackers, to a laboratory for DNA tests.

Talking to reporters on phone, Abu Saeed, the spokesman for the Ansarul Mujahideen, claimed that all attackers, except the suicide bomber who had blown himself up, had safely returned to their camp.

In Dera Ismail Khan, meanwhile, suspected militants killed two brothers of an SHO in Rori area.

Police said that the family of Safur Rehman, the SHO of Kulachi police station, was asleep when militants barged into his house and started firing.

Fakhar Zaman and Ismail were killed and their younger brother Asghar was injured. A case has been registered against a militant group led by Malangi.

Sources said the attack indicated frustration among militants as personnel of law-enforcement agencies had tightened noose around them. A local commander of the TTP was killed in an encounter on Sunday.

In Landi Kotal, activists of the banned Lashkar-i-Islam swapped the body of a slain constable with that of one of their accomplices killed by Peshawar police on Friday.

Local elder Malik Zahir Shah facilitated the exchange.

Security forces demolished houses of two suspected militants in Ghundi area in Jamrud tehsil. Officials said Khan Said and Zarin Khan were wanted in subversion cases.

Two wanted men, Najeeb Maniakhel and Akram Maniakhel, surrendered before the political administration in Jamrud.

Meanwhile, three rockets, fired from across the border in Afghanistan, landed in a deserted place in Yakha Cheena area in Landi Kotal.

It was the second such incident in the area in two days.

In another incident, militants blew up a bridge in Kamarkhel area in Bara, disrupting the movement of security forces between Fort Salop and the hilly area of Sheen Qamar.

Security forces cordoned off the area to look for militants but no arrests were made till late night.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2014