LAKKI MARWAT/MOHMAND: Law-enforcement agencies killed two militants in an “intelligence-based operation” in the Kurrum Par area of Lakki Marwat district late on Wednesday.

A police official told Dawn on Thursday that the counter-terrorism department’s commandos and local police’s personnel jointly launched the operation on a tip-off about the militants’ movements in the area.

“Credible reports suggested that a group of militants were planning to attack a police station and a police post in Dadiwala and Abbasa Khattak areas, so a large contingent of the personnel of law-enforcement agencies was dispatched to the remote rural area to foil the plans of militants to attack police installations,” he said.

The official said when the police personnel got there, the militants attacked them with automatic weapons and hand grenades. He said several grenades went off with loud bangs, while the law enforcers, who got engaged in a gun battle with militants, remained unhurt.

The official said the intense exchange of fire continued for around half an hour, killing two militants affiliated with the banned militant group Tehreek-i-Taliban’s Teepo Group, including Furqan and Tanveer Ali.

He said accomplices of the two militants fled into the mountains, taking advantage of the darkness. The official said personnel of the law-enforcement agencies seized two AK-47 assault rifles, eight magazines, four hand grenades, and bullets and shifted the bodies of the militants to the tehsil headquarters hospital in Naurang town.

ATTACK REPULSED: The police have repulsed a militant attack on their Sangar checkpost in Halimzai tehsil of Mohmand district.

A police official told Dawn that a group of militants armed with automatic weapons attacked the police checkpost with hand grenades early on Thursday (12:15am).

He said the attack left official Namdar Khan injured, who was shifted to a Peshawar hospital.

DPO Mohammad Ayaz Khan confirmed the attack and said the police personnel effectively repulsed the attack.

He said DSP Nader Sher Khan and SHO Israr Khan were on routine patrol in the Sangar area of marble factories when they received information about the attack at the police post.

“We rushed to the site and retaliated effectively,” he said. He said the attackers fled.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2024