PESHAWAR, April 11: Three alleged militants and a policeman were killed and another official sustained injuries in a clash at Jamrud Road here in the small hours of Monday.

Capital City Police Officer Liaquat Ali told journalists that a police party led by assistant sub-inspector Sajid Iqbal Khan was on a routine patrol when militants attacked their vehicle near Hayatabad Industrial Estate at about 2am.

He said that at least 20 people armed with sophisticate weapons opened indiscriminate fire on the police van from the rooftop of a building in Khushaal Market. The ASI and another policeman identified as Bakhshis Khan of Naguman Charsadda sustained bullet injuries in the attack.

Mr Ali said that three attackers were killed in retaliatory firing by policemen. “Soon after the encounter, additional force also reached the spot and started search operation but the attackers managed to escape,” he said. However, bodies of three terrorists were found on the rooftop, where they had taken position, he added. He said that three Kalashnikovs and hand grenades were also found on the rooftop.

The injured policemen were shifted to Hayatabad Medical Complex, where the ASI was pronounced dead. Bakhshis Khan was stated to be in stable condition.

The funeral prayer of the ASI was offered at Malik Saad Khan Police Lines with full honour and later his body was shifted to his village Daudzai, on the suburbs of Peshawar, for burial.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Barrister Masood Kausar, Khyber Assembly Speaker Karamatullah Khan Chagharmati, Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Inspector General of Police Fiaz Ahmad Khan Turo, Frontier Constabulary Commandant Mohammad Akbar Khan Hoti and other officials attended the funeral prayer.

The governor condemned the killing of police official and termed the attack as cowardly act. The government, he said, was determined to uproot the menace of terrorism once for all and would never bow down to any pressure in this regard.

The bodies of killed terrorists were shifted to local morgue. A source at the mortuary said that no one had so far contacted them for taking the bodies.

A police source claimed that the terrorists belonged to Khyber Agency and one of them was an activist of militant organisation Lashkar-i-Islam.

The others two belonged to Qambarkhel and Kokikhel tribes, he said. However, he did not disclose their names.

An official of Haytabad police station, when contacted, said that FIR was registered against unidentified terrorists. He said that police had started search operation in the surrounding areas but no one had so far been arrested. He said that militants might have fled to Khyber Agency as the area was located close to the crime scene.