Peshawar witnessed 42pc of terrorist attacks carried out in KP

PESHAWAR: The provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been the most targetted city in the country that has witnessed more suicide bombings, target killings, bomb attacks and other kinds of heinous crimes in recent years.

Some of the top officials and politicians are among the thousands of civilians and government officials who have come under attack by the terrorist incidents. Though this is a fact that the population of the provincial capital is more than any other district of the province, the figures of terrorist attacks are much more than its share in population.

Even the figures of terrorist incidents happened only in 2017 can give an idea of the sufferings of the residents of the provincial capital who have come under suicide attacks, bombings, rocket and mortar barrages, target killing, extortion, kidnapping and all kind of crimes in the last 13 years.

According to the statistics compiled by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police that purely deals with the terrorism cases, 56 of the 133 incidents of target killings, extortion, kidnapping and other terrorist attacks occurred in Peshawar in 2017.

"The share of Peshawar in the overall terrorist incident is 42.11 per cent, followed by Dera Ismail Khan with 17.29 per cent and Bannu and Charsadda districts with 6.7 per cent each," a source told The News.

He said that the number of attacks in Peshawar were more than the total incidents that happened in the entire province, except Dera Ismail Khan. None of the districts in the Hazara division, as per the CTD figures, had witnessed any incident of target killing, extortion, kidnapping or terrorism during 2017.

Besides, there were a number of incidents that were thwarted to save the lives and properties of the people all over KP. "Out of total 99 attacks foiled in the province in 2017, Peshawar's contribution was the highest with 40 sabotage bids that were thwarted. Mardan stood second where 24 terrorist attacks were foiled, followed by Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan," the source said.

Out of the accused arrested in cases of terrorism, the share of Peshawar was the highest. "A total of 492 accused involved in cases of terrorism, target killings, kidnapping and extortion were arrested during 2017 out of which 193 were held in Peshawar. They included 113 accused involved in terrorism, 47 in extortion, 25 in kidnapping and eight in target killings," the sources said. About 105 of these suspected terrorists were arrested in Mardan, followed by Dera Ismail Khan with 77 arrests, Kohat with 41, 35 with Bannu, Malakand with 29 and Hazara region with 12.

Peshawar has lost the senior most politician of the province, the then senior minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour in a suicide bombing in December 2012. His son Haroon Bilour was also martyred in a suicide attack last month. Among the officials, all the four additional and deputy inspectors general of police of the KP Police martyred in the last few years were targeted in Peshawar.

They included commandant Frontier Constabulary Safwat Ghayur, Additional IG Headquarters KP Mohammad Ashraf Noor, DIG Malik Mohammad Saad and DIG Abid Ali. Three SPs of the Peshawar Police were martyred in attacks only during one year. There are a number of other civil and military officials, their establishments, convoys and other high profile individuals as well as general public and their properties worth billions of rupees that have come under attack in Peshawar during the last 13 years.