LAKKI MARWAT: The police foiled an attempt by militants to attack a police station in Bargai area here, claimed a police official on Thursday. The official said that a group of militants assembled in the remote rural area late Wednesday night to target the police station building.

He added that the personnel deployed at the police station noticed movement of the armed miscreants with the help of modern gadgets and opened fire on them. “Before the terrorists could strengthen their position, the policemen who were fully alert attacked them,” he maintained, adding that the quick response by police left the armed terrorists with no option but to flee the area.

The Bargai police station was established in 2021 to maintain law and order in the peripheries of the district and check infiltration of militants from adjacent tribal districts of erstwhile Fata.

In Dec 2022, four policemen were martyred and four others including an ASI were injured when terrorists attacked a police station in Bargai area.

Meanwhile, a kingpin of a bandits’ gang was injured in an encounter with police in Tajori Town here on Thursday.

A police official told Dawn that an intense fire exchange took place when police came face-to-face with the bandits near Kattukhel Adda. He said that a party of Tajori police station reached the area on receiving information about the presence of proclaimed offenders Naseer Khan, a ringleader of bandits’ gang, and Tahir Khan. “When policemen reached the area, the armed men opened fire on them in a bid to flee the place on a motorcycle,” he maintained.

The official said that police retaliated and the fire exchange continued for some time.

“After the gunfight, police launched a search in the area and arrested Naseer Khan in injured condition while his accomplice managed to disappear in the forest,” he claimed, saying that the police also seized an AK-47 assault rifle, ammunition and a stolen motorcycle from the arrested suspect.

He said the police shifted the injured PO to a hospital and registered a case against him and his accomplice under the relevant sections of law.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2024