DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Suspected militants att­ack­ed a police check-post in the Daraban area of Dera Ismail Khan late on Friday night, leaving two passers-by dead and two others injured.

Sources said that a group of 10 to 12 militants on motorcycles opened fire on the post and fled.

As a result, an employee of a nearby petrol filling station and another man passing by the area were killed. Two other passers-by suffered injuries, they said.

The deceased were identified as Samiullah and Naqibullah and the injured as Bangal, hailing from Que­tta, and Peer Mohammad. They were taken to hospital.

Security forces started a search in the area to track down the attackers. How­ever, no arrests were made till filing of this report.

On July 21, a suicide attack on a government-run hospital in Dera Ismail Khan followed hot on the heels of a gun assault on a check-post, where two constables were martyred. The bomber had detonated explosives strapped to his body at the entrance to the hospital where the two martyred constables had been shifted. Four policemen and three civilians had been killed in the suicide bombing.

Four terrorists were killed during a search operation carried out by security forces in Kulachi tehsil of Dera Ismail Khan on Aug 17.

It may be mentioned that law enforcement agencies have long pointed to the presence and growing activities of militants in the Dera Ismail Khan district.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2019