QUETTA/KHYBER: Four personnel of law enforcement agencies were martyred while a traffic police constable sustained gunshot wounds in armed attacks in Pishin and Khyber districts of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, officials said on Wednesday.

Pishin was rocked by two gun attacks within a span of eight hours, which clai­med the lives of two Levies officials and left the traffic police constable wounded.

The attackers used automatic weapons on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday to target a security check post in the Milizai area of Pishin district, police said. The Levies personnel, Yasin Alyas and Abdul Qadeer, embraced martyrdom in the shooting, the officials said, adding that the security personnel rushed to the site and shifted the bodies to the district hospital.

The second attack in Pishin was carried out just within a span of eight hours while officials were engaged in initial investigation and arrangements for the funeral of the martyrs. Armed men riding motorcycles targeted a traffic policeman performing his duty at Jan Adha area of the busy Pishin Bazaar.

Attacks carried out at midnight on check posts of Levies and KP police

The constable, who received multiple bullet injuries, was immediately shifted to Pishin district hospital.

Officials said a search operation was launched in Pishin and surrounding areas to trace out the elements involved in the armed attacks.

Pishin Deputy Commissioner Jumma Dad Khan Mandokhail and other senior officials, meanwhile, attended the funeral of the Levies personnel, who were later buried in a local graveyard with full official honour.

Three killed in Khyber

Another midnight attack on a check post, this time in the Landi Kotal area of Khyber district, claimed the lives of two policemen and a civilian, besides leaving a police official and several others injured, officials said.

They said an unknown number of militants opened fire on the Charwazgai check post, situated on the main Torkhum Hig­hway, near the Landi Kotal army camp.

They said that police sub-inspector Alamzeb Afridi and constable Sher Alam along with a civilian Naib Shah were martyred on the spot, while the official in charge of the security post Kumandan Afridi and a watchman of a nearby petrol pump received injuries in the indiscriminate firing.

Police officials said that after the retaliatory firing by the police present at the che­ck post, the attackers managed to escape.

A contingent of additional police force immediately reached the spot and conducted a search operation, besides increasing patrol. The injured police official and civilian were then rushed to hospital in Peshawar for treatment.

The main road leading to Torkham, however, remained open on Wednesday morning.

Funerals of both policemen and a civilian were later offered at Tatara ground.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2024