KOHAT: Four persons, including two army officials, a policeman and a civilian, were injured when some miscreants lobbed a grenade at the Jarma police station and then an improvised explosive device went off minutes later when people and officials gathered at the site the other day, an official said.

Jarma police SHO Saifullah Khan told Dawn that a policeman, Imran, was injured in the grenade attack. He added two army officials and rickshaw driver, who was passing by the area, were injured when an explosive device went off 20 minutes after the first attack. He said the injured policeman and the rickshaw driver were shifted to the KDA hospital.

SHO Saifullah said the injured army officials were taken to the Combined Military Hospital.

He said a search operation was launched after the blast, but nobody could be arrested.

Police stations of Bilitang, Junglekhel, Kaghazai, Jarma, police training school, Mills checkpost and houses of former MNA Shehryar Afridi and provincial information secretary of Pakistan Peoples Party have been attacked with grenades in the past, in which about 20 policemen have been injured.

A senior police official said that the motive behind such attacks was to cause panic among the policemen and the general public.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2023