77 cops killed in KP last year

PESHAWAR: As many as 20 each target killing incidents were reported in Peshawar and Bannu range in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the last one year as an increase has been witnessed in overall terror attacks across the province. This does not include different other terrorist attacks on police, other forces and civilians.

“A total of 77 target killing cases were lodged by the Counter-Terrorism Department during the last one year. These include the incidents in which mostly policemen were targeted with automatic weapons or pistols,” a source told The News.

This was the highest incidents of target killing in the last many years. All kind of terrorist incidents had dropped significantly after 2014 but accelerated again for over a year. “Peshawar and Bannu ranges top the list where 20 each incidents were reported in the last one year in which policemen and some other individuals fell victims to targeted attacks. As many as 15 such incidents were reported in Dera Ismail Khan Range, 11 in Mardan, eight in Malakand and three in Kohat regions,” the source told The News.

No target killing incident was reported in Hazara division during the last one year. Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan regions in southern KP were the worst hit in the recent wave of terrorism where the police and security forces remained the prime target of the attacks.

Since the law and order has taken an ugly turn over the last many months, North Waziristan and South Waziristan, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan districts of the DIK and Bannu divisions have witnessed the highest number of terrorist attacks, including bomb blasts, grenade and automatic weapons attacks on police stations, posts and convoys of security forces. Attacks have also increased in Peshawar, Khyber as well as a few districts of Malakand, Mardan and Kohat division. In the last many months, most of the attacks were carried out on the police stations, posts and vehicles of police or law enforcement agencies.

Attacks are being carried out on police and security personnel in Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu almost on a daily basis in recent weeks. The police recently started engaging people in southern districts and other towns affected by the terrorism to get support for the law-enforcement agencies against the miscreants.

“The district police officers in Bannu and Lakki Marwat had their first meetings with the elders the other day. We will bring the process down to the SHO level in the coming weeks so people support the police and army in case of any attack,” a senior police official said. He added the general public joined hands with the cops to fight the attackers in Lakki Marwat and other districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after an increase in attacks on the police.