PESHAWAR/JAMRUD: Three Pakistan Army officials, including a brigadier and a major, were killed and two others sustained serious injuries in a military gunship chopper (Cobra) crash and an ambush on a rescue team that was proceeding towards the Tirah Valley in the troubled Khyber Agency to recover bodies and wreckage of the helicopter, reportedly shot down by suspected militants on Wednesday.
Also, 18 people including Rangers and Khassadar officials were killed in a suicide attack at Wazir Dhand in Jamrud tehsil of the same tribal agency. Though no militant group has claimed responsibility so far for hitting the military helicopter, military sources said there were strong indications that the gunship chopper had been shot down by militants.
Pakistan Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told The News by telephone that the chopper had crashed due to some technical fault.He said a rescue team headed by a Pakistan Army brigadier was dispatched to the area to recover bodies of the two slain officials — a pilot and a gunner — and wreckage of the chopper.
The rescue team, he said, was ambushed by the militants killing the brigadier and injuring two other officers, including a major and a lieutenant.Athar Abbas said bodies of the pilot and gunner as well as wreckage of the chopper could not be recovered due to the attack on the rescue party.
Official sources told The News that two gunship choppers were sent to the Tirah Valley, a remote and forested mountainous area of the troubled Khyber Agency, to blitz positions of the militants affiliated with the Mangal Bagh-led Lashkar-e-Islam.
The choppers heavily shelled some suspected positions of the militants and disappeared for some time. Later, when the choppers reappeared and were seen bombing suspected militants’ hideouts in the mountainous territory, the militants opened fire at the two gunship choppers and finally shot down one of the helicopters in the forests near Nangrosa area, the native town of Mangal Bagh.
Several hours later after the chopper hit the ground, a rescue team of the Pakistan Army’s 40 Baloch Regiment was sent to the area in two helicopters to recover the bodies of the two slain officials — a pilot Major Muzaffar and a gunner, Havaldar Asim, and wreckage of the destroyed helicopter.
It seemed the militants were already aware of the arrival of rescue team, as they attacked the two helicopters soon after its members touched the ground.According to sources, Brigadier Hussain, Major Zia and Lieutenant Ansar sufferedserious injuries in the attack.
Brigadier Hussain, they said, later succumbed to his injuries while the two other officials were airlifted to a military hospital in Peshawar. It was the second crash of a military chopper almost in the same area.
The militants last year had shot down a Pakistan Army transport helicopter in the Ferozkhel area of neighbouring Orakzai Agency, killing 42 soldiers. According to sources, after their eviction from the Bara subdivision and nearby towns, Mangal Bagh and his men joined hands with militants linked with the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) having camps in the nearby forests in Khyber and Orakzai tribal regions.
“Mangal Bagh and his men would not have the capability of shooting down the military chopper without support from well-trained TTP militants,” the sources said. In the Jamrud tehsil of Khyber Agency, a suicide bomber attacked Khassadar force personnel at Wazir Dhand, killing 18 people including two Pakistan Rangers officials, a Khassadar Line Officer and others.
(According AFP 18 people were killed in the attack. “Eleven are tribal policemen and seven are civilians,” Shafeerullah Wazir, the administrative chief of Khyber Agency, told AFP.)The incident took place at about 4:45pm when a suicide bomber walking on foot approached a vehicle of the Khassadar personnel and detonated the explosives at Wazir Dhand on the busy road linking Pakistan with Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass.
Khassadar Line Officer at Jamrud, Naib Subedar Zarmat Khan, his driver named Khan, two deputy superintendents of Pakistan Rangers Salim Khan Afridi and Ibrahim Khan Afridi, who were real brothers, Khassadar force personnel Ehsan Shah, Fateh Gul, Ashfaq and Zarat Khan and two tribesmen Malik Shan Gul and Noor Wali Afridi were among the dead.
Those injured included the Khassadar Line Officer at Bara, Jan Afzal, Abdul Mannan, a local journalist Amjad, Najeed Khan, Rahman Shah, Attaur Rahman and an unknown person. The victims were shifted to Hayatabad Medical Complex and Khyber Teaching Hospital in Peshawar.
Eyewitnesses said Naib Subedar Zarmat Khan, along with his armed Khassadar personnel, had gone to a car showroom of Shan Gul in connection with talks regarding a jirga. When he came out of the showroom, he saw Bara’s Khassadar Line Office Jan Afzal on the road along with his two cousins Salim Afridi and Ibrahim Afridi, who were serving as DSPs in Pakistan Rangers at Kasur and Bahawalpur respectively and had come to Bara on leave. They were on their way to Karkhano Market, or Hayatabad Market, to buy bulletproof jackets. But before they could make the purchase both brothers were killed and their cousin Jan Afzal was seriously injured in the suicide bombing.
According to the eyewitnesses, the suicide bomber attacked the government officials when they were greeting each other, and caused an explosion that destroyed the official vehicles and caught everyone by surprise.
Khassadar Line Officer Zarmat Khan, who was illiterate but was known for his bravery, had been nominated for the gallantry award Tamgha-e-Jurrat for standing up to the militants despite frequent threats. He was to receive the award on March 23 this year. Zarmat Khan had got married the second time a week ago. He was the third Khassadar Force official in his family to have died in the line of duty.
Soon after the incident, the security forces and fire-brigade vehicles rushed to the site and cordoned off the area. Traffic on Peshawar-Landikotal Road was suspended for two hours. Later, the security forces launched a search and clearance operation but there were no reports about any arrests.
This was the third suicide bombing targeting the Khassadar Force, which comprises local tribesmen and maintains law and orders on the roads, in Khyber Agency in a year. Last year on March 27, the suicide attack on a mosque at the Bagyari checkpoint killed 60 people including 20 Khassadars. The second suicide bombing against the Khassadars took place in September last year at the time of Iftar during Ramazan at Torkham in which 21 personnel of the Khassadar Force were killed.
APP adds: Meanwhile, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Chief Altaf Hussain has strongly condemned the suicide attack.
In a statement Altaf Hussain expressed profound grief over the deaths and injuries in the suicide attack.Minister for Housing and Works Rehmatullah Kakar also condemned the attack. He expressed his deep grief and sorrow over the loss of lives in the incident.
While condoling with the bereaved families, the minister prayed to Almighty Allah to rest the departed souls in eternal peace and grant courage to the bereaved families to bear the loss with equanimity.
