ISLAMABAD: At least three cops, including a DSP, were killed in a late-night attack on a Peshawar police station Saturday, with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claiming responsibility.
Peshawar SSP Kashif Abbasi said at least six to eight terrorists were involved in the 1am strike on Sarband police station in Badaber, adjacent to the restive Khyber tribal district bordering Afghanistan where the TTP allegedly has bases.
“The attack was coordinated from multiple directions. The terrorists used multiple weapons, including grenades, sniper shots and automatic guns fitted with night-vision goggles,” Abbasi said.
Abbasi said DSP Sardar Hussain chased the fleeing terrorists and tried to encircle them but he and two other cops, Irshad and Jehanzeb, lost their lives during the ensuing exchange of fire.
Another senior police official, Ijaz Khan, offered a varying account. According to him, DSP Hussain and the other cops were shot by the terrorists’ sniper guns as they parked their vehicle and walked towards the Sarband police station. “The DSP and two policemen died on the spot. All of them received gunshot wounds to their heads and bodies,” Khan said.
The area falls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, governed by the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Pakistan interior minister Rana Sanaullah Khan -- of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) -- said the central government was deeply concerned about deteriorating law and order in the area. He accused the PTI government of failing to learn from previous assaults.
The TTPdeclared war against Pakistan’s security forces after ending a truce in November and has frequently targeted the police in recent weeks. The ill-equipped cops seem an easy target for the well-trained and battle-hardened TTP fighters laced with sophisticated weapons left behind by US and Nato forces in Afghanistan.
The area once hosted a US Air Force-CIA base for espionage against the erstwhile Soviet Union at the Cold War’s peak. Over 1,000 US troops were stationed at the facility. An American U-2 spy plane shot down by the Soviet forces in 1960 was coordinated and launched from there.