On July 2, six members of a family died in a gas cylinder blast in Ghundi village. The blast occurred when women were busy preparing food for Iftar.
On July 12, unidentified gunmen torched three road construction machineries of the Frontier Works Organisation’s (FWO) in Shagai area of the Jamrud tehsil. However, no loss of life was reported in the incident. The gunmen sprinkled petrol on the heavy machineries at midnight and set it on fire.
A van of the Khasadar personnel was attacked in Sheikhmalkhel village in Landikotal tehsil, injuring a Khassadar on July 13, while on the same day a bullet-riddled body of a Mardan resident was found in Charmaro village in Jamrud subdivision.
The same day, two motorcyclists shot and injured Iqal Afridi, cousin of Member National Assembly Alhaj Shaji Gul Afridi, in Jamrud tehsil and fled the scene. A few kilometres from the place of occurrence, a resident of Bara, Ahmad, was shot and injured in a similar attack in Shahkas area of Jamrud. Taking action on a tip-off on July 17, the Landikotal administration arrested a gang of car-lifters and recovered two stolen cars from their possession.
A tragic incident happened on July 18 when the security forces’ vehicles were ambushed in Malak Shahga area of Jamrud. Eight Frontier Crops (FC) soldiers died in the attack while four others sustained injuries. Four militants were also killed in retaliation. Following the attack in Jamrud, the security forces conducted a search operation and arrested dozens of people in different areas of Jamrud tehsil. A local journalist, Wajid Ali Kokikhel, was also detained in the search operation and he was released after a few days.
The next day, two Khasadar officials were shot dead in Shahkas area on July 19. Hawaldar Wahab and Sepoy Rehman were on their way home in Bara from Jamrud when their car was chased by motorcyclists near Shahkas and they were sprayed with bullets.
Also, gunmen abducted a man and his nephew from their hujra on July 19. Sources said more than a dozen gunmen entered a hujra (guesthouse for men) of Rehan Gul and picked his brother and his son on gunpoint. MNA Nasir Khan Afridi’s personal secretary Haji Bismilallah Jan was assassinated on Ring Road in Peshawar when he was returning home from an Iftar dinner on July 23.
On July 25, body of a teenager, who had been missing for three days, was found in Bara tehsil of the agency.
Three incidents occurred in all the three tehsils of Khyber Agency on July 26. In the first incident, three people of a same family were abducted in Landikotal while two on-duty Khasadars, Arif and Saifullah, were critically injured in an attack in Ali Masjid area of Jamrud. In the third incident, a bullet-riddled body Saeed, 13, was found in Spera Dam area in Bara. The body of a missing security official was found on July 27 in Jamrud. Attaullah Afridi, who was severing in Swat Scouts and had been on leave to celebrate Eid with his family, was abducted, beheaded and his body was dumped in a deserted area of Jamrud later on.
On the same day, unidentified armed men gunned down Hairan Gul Kokikhel in Jamrud and fled the scene. Four Tirah IDPs, who were returning home in Tirah Maidan area, were killed and five others injured when their van was targeted in Orazai Agency near Tirah valley.
A resident of Bara was killed in a remote-controlled bomb blast in Qamarkhel area. On July 27, gunmen attacked the agency’s Education Office in Jamrud and injured a watchman, Nabi Gul. This correspondent tried to contact Khyber Agency Political Agent Syed Shahab Ali Shah and Assistant Political Agent Jamrud Roshan Khan Mehsud regarding the growing incidents of militancy, but both the officials did not respond the calls made by this scribe.
No comments:
Post a Comment