GHALANAI/MIRAMSHAH: A young officer of the Pakistan Army was martyred and four others were injured in separate improvised explosive device (IED) blasts in Mohmand and North Waziristan tribal districts on Wednesday.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a statement released on Twitter said: “Captain Zarghaam Fareed embraced martyrdom while neutralising an IED detected at Mohmad Gat in Mohmand Distt. Sepoy Rehan of BD team got critically injured. 25 years old Capt Zarghaam was unmarried and belonged to Sargodha.”

The incident took place in the Safi area of Mohmand district. According to officials in Ghalanai, the bomb disposal squad was defusing the IED in the Sheikh Baba Pesto Kandow area near the Afghan border when it went off. As a result, Capt Zarghaam embraced martyrdom on the spot while Sepoy Rehan got seriously injured.

The injured was shifted to Mamad Gat Hospital and the body of Capt Zarghaam was taken to Peshawar. The ISPR said the funeral prayer for Shaheed Capt Zarghaam was offered in Peshawar Cantonment and later the body was dispatched to his ancestral town for burial with full military honours.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Shah Farman, Corps Commander Lt Gen Shaheen Mazhar Mehmood, Frontier Corps Inspector General Maj Gen Abid Latif, ISPR DG Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor and a number of civil and military officials attended the funeral prayer.

Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed deep grief over the martyrdom of Capt Zarghaam Fareed and prayed for the departed soul. He said sacrifices of such brave soldiers would not go waste and expressed his government’s firm resolve to rid the country of extremists and terrorists.

Meanwhile, three soldiers were wounded in a roadside blast in the Garyom area of North Waziristan. The personnel were patrolling the area when a remote-controlled device exploded, causing injuries to Qasim, Amjad and Zaheer.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2018