PESHAWAR, Feb 27: Over 100 suspected militants attacked a police post in Badhaber area on the outskirts of the provincial capital on Tuesday night, set the two-room building on fire and forced the police personnel out of the post.

The post located at a place about 3kms from the area’s police station, was manned by six personnel. Men raising slogans of Allah-o-Akbar attacked it at around midnight.

However, Superintendent of Police for Peshawar’s rural area Nasirul Mulk Bangash told reporters that the attack had been carried out by criminals and not militants.

He said the personnel deployed at the post had fought bravely and managed to evade capture. No policeman was injured.

He claimed that the attackers were impersonating militants to frighten the police so that they could continue their criminal activities in the area, including kidnapping people and snatching cars on the Indus Highway.

Mr Bangash said that the group comprised notorious criminals from Nowshera, Mardan and Punjab.

He said 180 police personnel armed with heavy and light machine-guns and backed by two platoons of the Frontier Constabulary were deployed in the area.

He said four new checkpoints had been set up on the Akakhel and Frontier roads and in Ghaziabad, while trenches were being dug at some places to provide cover to law-enforcement personnel.