PESHAWAR: A police patrolling party narrowly escaped an IED (improvised explosive device) attack in the Gula Khan Zangal area, southwest of the provincial capital bordering Khyber district, on Sunday.

The bomb, weighing around one kilogram, was planted on a roadside within the jurisdiction of Badhber Police Station and it went off seconds after the police van passed through the site, police said, adding the police party remained unhurt. The vehicle was slightly damaged.

Officials said the police party had been asked to patrol the area since a polio eradication vaccination campaign was under way to reach those who refuse to administer drops to their kids, adding “the step [deputing the team] was taken as a security measure since vaccinators are being targeted by militants”.

The police party was patrolling the area when a call came from the police station to respond to a firing incident in the Mashokhel area, SP Rural Malik Habib said.

He stated that in order to respond to the firing incident, the police party turned right, adding that seconds later the bomb went off. “The police party escaped the attack but the vehicle was damaged,” Mr Habib told Dawn.

Senior officials stated that police teams rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area and launched a search operation. However, no arrests were made till filing of the report.

Officials from the Bomb Disposal Unit (BDU) stated that approximately 1kg of explosives was used in the blast.

The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack.

The outlawed outfit has intensified attacks against the law enforcement agencies across the province ever since the ceasefire ended between it and the government last year and it has been targeting police posts and police stations along the border with Afghanistan.

On Saturday, a policeman embraced martyrdom and two others sustained bullet injuries when some unidentified armed men attacked a police post in Dheri Zardad locality of the district Charsadda. On Thursday, three persons, including two policemen, were martyred when militants carried out a three-pronged coordinated attack at Takhtabeg police post in Jamrud tehsil of Khyber tribal district located on Peshawar-Torkham Highway.

On January 15, hardly 10 KMs away from Gula Khan Zangal, a Deputy Superintendent of Police Sardar Hussain and his gunmen Irshad Khan and Jahanzeb had embraced martyrdom when they fell victims in a midnight militant attack, on Sarband police station on the outskirts of Peshawar. The militants, some senior police officials believed, had for the first time used modern gadgets to target police.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2023