Hangu: two explosions target police, SP among three martyred

WEB DESK: Two explosions rocked the Hangu district on Friday, targeting police personnel and infrastructure, officials said. According to police, the first blast occurred within the jurisdiction of the Bilyamina police station, where unidentified assailants used explosives to blow up the Gulmina police post. The explosion destroyed a nearby room of the post, though no casualties were reported. A police van parked close to the site and the personnel on duty remained unharmed.

Soon after the incident, a police contingent reached the area to secure the site and begin an investigation.

However, as SP (Operations) Asad Zubair and his team were on their way to inspect the damaged post, a second explosion struck their vehicle.

Inspector General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Zulfiqar Hameed confirmed that SP Asad Zubair and three police personnel were martyred in the attack. He said the SP had been heading to the site of the first explosion when his vehicle was targeted.

The injured were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital, while security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to locate the perpetrators.

IGP Hameed said that an investigation into the Hangu blasts is underway. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the twin attacks.

August attack

Earlier in August, two security personnel were martyred and 11 others injured in an attack on a Frontier Constabulary (FC) check post in Hangu’s Torawarai area. The banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the assault, identifying the martyred soldiers as Naik Sadiq Hussain and Sepoy Abdul Ghaffar. In a separate operation in Dir, security forces and the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) killed 10 TTP militants. Security sources said Afghan citizenship and militia ID cards were recovered from the slain militants, indicating cross-border involvement.

This attack came weeks after a July 19 incident in Hangu’s Shanaori Zargari area, where three law enforcement officers were injured in an exchange of fire with militants. The latest violence underscores the persistent security challenges in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.