Matani has turned into a nightmare not only for the cops deployed at the local police station, but also for the security personnel travelling through the area during odd hours.
Seven policemen were killed and another seven were wounded when the convoy of the District Police Officer (DPO) Kohat, Dilawar Bangash came under attack in the troubled Matani town late Friday night. Dilawar Bangash sustained injuries when his convoy was attacked with rockets followed by intense firing by the militants. His condition, however, is said to be out of danger.
Six of the cops killed were those escorting the DPO from Kohat. One of those killed and five pf the wounded are from the Elite Force which was rushed to Matani from Peshawar after the DPO Kohat was attacked. The wounded are being treated at the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar.
The funeral prayers for one slain cop was offered at the Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines in Peshawar. The funerals for the other six policemen were offered at Kohat Police Lines on Saturday.
Dilawar Bangash came under attack when he was on the way from Kohat to Peshawar at around 11pm. The attackers fired rockets at his car and another vehicle escorting him and then opened indiscriminate fire before the cops could retaliate. Contingents of the police and soldiers were sent to the area and the exchange of fire between the two sides continued for a few hours before the attackers managed to escape from the scene.
Only a few days back, five soldiers were killed and many wounded when their convoy was attacked by the militants on Kohat Road in Matani. Search operations are being conducted in the area on regular basis.
It isn’t known as to why the DPO Kohat was driving at such late hours from Kohat to Peshawar through the troubled Matani area in rural Peshawar where attacks on security personnel has become a routine.
In a similar attack, the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Bannu, Abid Ali, was ambushed in the same area in November 2006. Abid Ali and his driver were killed in the attack.
Apart from ambushes, the police have come under attack in Matani and nearby villages bordering the tribal area over the last many years. In October last year, Superintendent of Police (SP) Rural, Peshawar, Khurshid Khan, was killed along with six other security personnel when militants stormed the Ghaziabad police post in the area.
Kalam Khan, another police officer who supervised the area of Matani as SP Rural, was killed in a suicide attack in Pishtakhara in March last year. Abdur Rashid Khan, deputy superintendent of police Saddar who looked after the areas of the Matani and Badaber police stations, was killed in another suicide attack on Kohat Road in January 2011. A number of inspectors, sub-inspectors and junior policemen have been killed and wounded in attacks in the area in recent years.
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