DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Twelve people, including a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) and two children, were killed and 14 others sustained injuries when terrorists targeted a police van with a remote-controlled explosive device in the Najafabad area on Tuesday.
Some sources claimed that it was a suicide attack not a remote-controlled explosion. The sources said DSP Muhammad Iqbal Marwat, along with security guard Muhammad Irshad and driver Muhammad Mushtaq, was on the way to his office from Najafabad when the terrorists blew up his vehicle with a powerful remote-controlled bomb on the Kachi Painda Khan road.
As a result, DSP Iqbal, constables Irshad and Mushtaq, civilian Muhammad Younas, his wife and their two children Iram Bibi and Arsalan, vegetable seller Rashid, passers-by Abdul Sattar, Sabir, Shah Zaib and Laiba, were killed on the spot.
Some of the injured were identified as Shahjehan, Jamshed, Ghulam Hussain, Muhammad Ramazan, Rehmatullah, son of Allah Nawaz, Rehmatullah, son of Muhammad Sharif, Asif Iqbal, Mulazim Hussain, Bashir Ahmed and Bakhtullah. All the injured were admitted to the District Headquarters Hospital. Hospital sources said four of the injured were in critical condition.
The sources said the explosives were tied to a bicycle parked at roadside. As the police van reached the spot, the terrorists detonated the device with a remote control. The explosion was so powerful that besides the police van it also destroyed a passenger coach and a three-wheeler and smashed the windowpanes of a number of nearby houses and shops.
A long queue of people was seen donating blood for the injured in the hospital. Relatives and friends also swarmed the hospital to know about their near and dear ones. Meanwhile, the funeral prayers of DSP Iqbal were offered with state honour at the Police Lines. Besides others, District Police Officer (DPO) Gul Afzal Khan Afridi and Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Muhammad Aslam Khan
Khattak attended the funeral prayers.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani condemned the bomb blast in Dera Ismail Khan and expressed his deep shock and sorrow over the loss of precious lives. In a statement, he said such cowardly acts of terrorism and extremism would never detract the nation from its determined struggle of restoring complete peace and normalcy in the society. No militant organisation claimed responsibility for the attack.
APP adds: President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Minister for Defence Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar have strongly condemned the suicide attack in Dera Ismail Khan and expressed their profound grief over the loss of lives in the ghastly act.
In their separate statements, they said such acts of cowardice could not deter the resolve of the government and people to foil nefarious designs of terrorists.
They 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. The United States embassy in Pakistan also condemned the terrorist attack in Dera Ismail Khan.
A US embassy spokesman said such brutal acts demonstrate the terrorists’ agenda of fear and intimidation. “We extend our condolences to the victims’ families and friends and to the people of Pakistan,” the spokesman said.
