PESHAWAR: Gunmen killed a station house officer in his vehicle on the Northern Bypass area here on Thursday morning.

The police said Shahpur police station’s SHO Shakeel Khan was targeted after being chased by two attackers in a car.

Capital City Police Officer Mohammad Ijaz Khan told reporters that the attackers first opened fire on the SHO’s vehicle and later got out of their vehicle and fired at the officer by a Kalashnikov and a 9mm pistol.

He said Shakeel Khan was martyred instantly.

A senior police official told Dawn on condition of anonymity that the incident appeared to be linked with the Tuesday night attack on Intelligence Bureau officials in Sarki area of Peshawar city.

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He said the investigators were examining if the banned militant Islamic State group’s Khorasan chapter (IS-K) was behind both terror attacks.

A CCTV footage of the attack showed that the officers crashing into a parked tractor apparently after being fired at from a chasing car.

The grainy footage showed two attackers emerging from a car and opening fire at the officer’s car from close range before speeding away.

Intelligence sources also insisted that attacks on the SHO and IB officials appeared to be linked as the same gun and vehicle were used for them.

They said the attacks didn’t bear the signature of IS-K, which didn’t go about targeting people in cars.

Provincial police chief Moazzam Jah Ansari told reporters that the SHO had left his house at around 8:30am to check a police checkpoint and was targeted by terrorist. He said the police were investigating the attack.

“The police are carrying out targeted operations against terrorists. Besides, they are also working to improve security of their officials,” he said.

Funeral prayers for the martyred SHO’s were offered at the Malik Saad Shaheed police lines, where the police and civil and military officers showed up in large numbers.

In a statement, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan condemned the attack and said the attackers would be taken to the task ‘at any cost’.

It was the third attack in the provincial capital since last Sunday when gunmen killed two Sikh traders on the city’s outskirts.

On Tuesday night, an IB officer was martyred in the City Circular Road area. Another official and his civilian brother suffered injuries in the attack.

Also in the day,a soldier was martyred in an attack on a convoy of security forces in South Waziristan tribal district.

In a statement, the ISPR said Hawaldar Mohammad Sanwar, a resident of Jhelum district, lost life when an improvised explosive device (IED) targeted a military convoy in Makeen area.

Meanwhile,attackers lobbed a grenade at a girls examination centre in Mirali town of North Waziristan tribal district. However, no one was harmed.

In another incident,a bomb attack targeted a vehicle of two teachers of the Mirali Degree College near the Bakakhel police station on Bannu-Mir Ali Road.

Prof Sher Ali was critically injured in the attack and was referred to Peshawar for treatment. The other teacher was discharged after treatment.

Our Dera Ismail Khan correspondent adds: SHO of the Kulachi police station Mohammad Ramazan was martyred in an accidental fire by his gunman, the police said here on Thursday.

Spokesman for district police Imtiaz Ali Janjua said the incident took place at a filling station on the Dera-Kulachi Road when the SHO’s gunman, Abrar Hussain, accidentally pressed the trigger of his Kalashnikov.

He said the SHO was shifted to the district headquarters hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

A spokesman said the gunman was also wounded in the incident but his condition was out of danger. He said the police were investigating the incident.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2022