SWABI: Two persons were killed and 26 others, including 17 policemen, were injured when the building of the Swabi city police station collapsed due to explosions here on Thursday night as a joint investigation team has been constituted to probe the incident, officials said on Friday.

Rescue and police officials said on Friday a teenager, Iqtidar Khan, died on the spot when the wall of a nearby mosque, where he was offering night prayers, fell.

They added that Mohammad Siraj, an employee of the food department, succumbed to his injuries at hospital on Friday. They said Siraj was in the police station to meet a relative kept in the lock-up when the blasts occurred.

A spokesperson of Bacha Khan Teaching Hospital, Shahmansoor, said 11 injured were brought to the health facility, where one of them, Mr Siraj, succumbed to injuries. He added three persons were discharged after medical aid and seven were admitted

He said the rest of the injured were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital, Swabi.

SP investigations Iftikhar Ali Khan told Dawn that about 600kg of explosives were kept in a room on the ground floor of the police station since 2014. He said it was not known how the explosives caught fire.

He said nine prisoners, who were kept in the lock-up, were among those injured when series of blasts completely flattened the police station building.

District police officer Haroon Rashid told mediapersons that huge blasts were caused by an electric short-circuit, which razed the police station building. He said the explosives first caught fire and then exploded. He said the impact was powerful that windowpanes and walls of nearby offices in the district headquarters were damaged.

He said water tank of the police station was blown away and its pieces landed at his (DPO’s official residence).

The DPO said he had constituted a joint investigation team to probe the blasts.

Meanwhile, Governor Faisal Karim Kundi visited the Bacha Khan Hospital and met with the injured.

Talking to mediapersons on the occasion, he said KP police had made tremendous sacrifices for peace in the province while fighting the war against terrorism.

Mr Kundi asked the provincial police chief to order probe into the blasts.

“I will recommend assistance for the two martyrs from the provincial government,” he promised, saying that the government stood with the people in their hour of distress.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2024