KOHAT: A leader of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), who was said to be involved in the Kalaya market blast, and two of his accomplices have been killed in a shootout with security forces near the Hangu prison, officials said.

District police officer Shahab Ali Shah told Dawn on Saturday that the army intelligence agency had been chasing the ‘militants’ for sometime after the blast in the Kalaya area of Orakzai district.

During the exchange of fire near the Hangu jail, TTP ‘commander’ Islam and two would-be suicide bombers — who had been planning more attacks — were killed, sources said.

All three members of the TTP belonged to the Orakzai district and their mission was to disrupt sectarian peace in the region.

The counterterrorism department of Kohat after registration of a case was investigating the case.

Last year on Oct 23, a powerful bomb planted in a crate went off during the early hours of the day when business was at its peak in the vegetable market of Kalaya in the lower subdivision of Orakzai district. It left 33 people dead and 56 injured.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2019