Mast Gul claims Kohat attack

Source The News

A militant group headed by ‘Major’ Mast Gul claimed responsibility for Sunday’s bomb explosion in Kohat in which 12 people were killed and 16 injured.

Fidaullah Fida stated to be the spokesman of this group, claimed responsibility for the attack that took place at a public vehicles stand in the busy Peshawar Chowk in Kohat.The group had also claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on the Pak Hotel in Peshawar. At the time, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Peshawar commander Mufti Hassan Swati had also joined hands with Mast Gul to claim responsibility for the bombing.

Sources in the TTP later claimed that Swati was summoned by the leaders of the outlawed militant organisation and reprimanded for undertaking the attack. Mast Gul became known as ‘Major’ Mast Gul because this is how the Indian authorities, media and even some of the Kashmiri mujahideen circles referred to him. He fought against Indian forces in Jammu and Kashmir where he led his fighters occupying the historic Charar Sharif shrine which was burnt down in the fighting.

Mast Gul later came to Pakistan where he earned respect and was warmly welcomed by Jamaat-e-Islami and other religious parties. He belongs to Kurram Agency. Lately, there are reports that he has come close to the banned sectarian militant group, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan.

Body found in Kohat

Source Tribune

A 49-year-old man was found dead near Khan Market in Tirah Bazaar of Kohat city on Tuesday.

According to SHO Iqbal Mohmand, Khaista Khan filed an FIR stating his cousin Rab Nawaz left home on Monday and had been missing since then. Khan added the family could not find Nawaz anywhere and came to know later that his body had been found.

The deceased’s relative said Nawaz had a property business in the city and had no personal rivalries.

In a separate incident, a man who had been just released from prison was gunned down near Muslimabad. An official of Jarma police station said Umair Khan filed an FIR stating his brother Taj Mir was released from Kohat Jail on Tuesday and they were later heading home when their rival Ashrafuddin opened fire at them near Shangrila Hotel.

Mir died on the spot while the accused managed to escape. According to Umair, Ashraf suspected Mir of shooting his brother a year ago which is why he attacked him.

12 killed in Kohat blast, several wounded

Source Dawn

An explosion on Hangu road near Police Lines area in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Kohat district on Sunday killed at least 12 people and injured several others, DawnNews reported.

According to latest reports from rescue sources, two more victims of today's blast died, while under treatment at the Lady reading Hospital, bringing the total death-toll of the incident to 12.

Earlier, district police chief Salim Khan Marwat talking to AFP said “After getting the latest reports from the hospitals where the dead bodies and injured were taken, we can now confirm that 10 people have been killed and 14 others are injured.”

Security and rescue teams rushed to the site of explosion which was heard across a long distance.

Inspector General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police, Nasir Khan Durrani, said that the blast took place near a passenger vehicle at Peshawar chowk on Hangu road.

Rejecting the notion that the blast was carried out by a suicide bomber, he said that it appeared to have been carried out using a planted device.

Durrani further said that according to initial reports, five kilograms of explosives were used in the blast which were planted in a wooden crate placed on the roadside.

The explosives were detonated as a passenger wagon reached Peshawar chowk injuring the occupants of the vehicle and the driver of a rickshaw parked nearby.

The victims were shifted to Liaquat Memorial Hospital whereas security personnel cordoned off the area. The Bomb Disposal Squad had also reached the blast site.

Further details of the attack and nature of the blast were not known till the filing of this report.

Shia leader shot dead in Kohat

Source daily times

KOHAT: A Shia leader and administrator of an imambargah was shot dead in Kohat on Friday.
According to Sadar Police Station SHO Iqbal, unidentified armed men shot dead Sher Muhammad Tori at Gari Nawaz Khan Chowk when he was going to local courts. The body was moved to a nearby hospital while the attackers escaped. Police have registered an FIR and started investigation. 
Sher Muhammad Tori hailed from Kurram Agency.
Separately, a low-intensity bomb exploded outside a shop in restive Matani area in the wee hours of Friday. However, no loss of life was reported.
Police said that the bomb was planted at a shop in restive Matani area and no casualty was reported because nobody was present at the shop at the time of explosion. The Mathani police rushed to the spot and started investigation.
The country is facing rising sectarian violence, with militant groups linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban often attacking gatherings of Shias, who make up some 20 percent of the country’s overwhelmingly Muslim population.

Imtiaz assures resolution of lawyers’ problems

Source Pakistan Observer

Peshawar—Deputy Speaker, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi has assured all-out efforts to be made for the resolution of the problems of Kohat District Bar Association on priority basis to bring maximum mitigation in their difficulties.

He expressed these views while talking to president, Kohat District Bar Association, Aman Khan Bangash here in Speaker Chamber the other day.

The Deputy Speaker said that being a lawyer it is a matter of honour that the problems of lawyers’ community will resolve by him, saying he will play his due role in this regard.

He assured leaving no stone unturned in the resolution of the problems facing the district bar Kohat and will be taken up at any level.Earlier, president, Kohat District Bar Association, Aman Khan Bangash held a meeting with Deputy Speaker and besides mutual affairs discussed problems faced by the association with him.—APP

French aid agency"ACTED" staffer wounded in firing near Kohat

Source Express Tribune

Gunman on a motorcycle fired on a vehicle being used by French aid organisation ACTED on Tuesday in troubled northwestern Pakistan, wounding the driver, police said.

The attack took place at Jarma, a low-income neighbourhood on the outskirts of the garrison town of Kohat, where thousands of displaced tribesmen from the Khyber and Orakzai tribal district as well as Afghan refugees are living.

District police chief Saleem Khan Marwat said staff from ACTED (Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development) were fired at by a man who fled on a motorcycle.

There were two staff members, both Pakistanis, and a driver in the vehicle and the driver was shot in the arm. His condition is stable at hospital, Marwat said.

An official of the NGO in Pakistan confirmed the details of the attack.

ACTED was working to improve sanitation and hygiene for displaced families.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Foreign-funded NGOs are viewed with particular suspicion in Pakistan after the arrest of a Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden through a fake vaccination campaign.

Minister orders free surgery of Hindu girl

Health Minister Shaukat Yousafzai on Friday directed the chief executive of the District Headquarters Hospital in Kohat to carry out free of cost surgery of a Hindu girl, sources said.Thhe minister received complaints from the people at the CM Complaint Cell where one of the complainants, Madan Lal, requested the minister for the free treatment of his daughter, Bareet Lal, who was suffering from abdominal tumor. The minister directed the chief executive of the hospital in Kohat to carry out her free of cost surgery at the earliest.The chief executive had contacted the father of the Hindu girl and informed him that the surgery of his daughter would be carried out on Monday.

Source The News

Slain teachers laid to rest amid protests

Source The News

HANGU: Three teachers slain by unknown gunmen were laid to rest in their respective areas on Tuesday as community members staged a protest to condemn the target killings which occurred on Monday. The teachers in the district boycotted classes in protest against the killing of their colleagues Muhammad Khan, Syed Khalil and Faqir Hussain. Unknown persons had shot dead the three teachers outside the Government Primary School in Kach Banda. The protesting teachers blocked the Hangu-Kohat Road for one hour and chanted slogans against the district administration. The protesters, led by Asamuddin, Kifayatullah, Amjad Ali and othersm demanded removal of the district police officer. They also sought the Shaheed package for the families of the slain teachers. Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Syed Ahmed Jan sent recommendation to the government seeking Rs5.5 million compensation each for the families of victims.

Internal politicking: PTI’s Kohat president suspended for violating party discipline

Source The News

The district president of the Kohat chapter of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was temporarily debarred on Wednesday following a meeting of the district cabinet for violating party discipline.

At a news conference at Kohat Press Club, general secretary Sajid Iqbal along with other PTI leaders said 21 of the 31 cabinet members passed a no confidence motion against district president Humayun Pehlwan. A show-cause notice had been issued to Pehlwan to which he has not replied.

Iqbal claimed this was not Pehlwan’s first violation and he had been given several chances to explain his actions. A meeting of the district cabinet will be called within five days to elect a new president.

Pehlwan has been favouring other parties over his own and has been denouncing PTI’s policies in the media, alleged the general secretary.

“As the district president, he cannot take measures against elected candidates of the party in the province or in the National Assembly, nor can he favour members of other parties over PTI.”

Meanwhile, Pehlwan also held a press conference and rejected accusations of violating party discipline. He accused the general secretary of doing the same by sidestepping him multiple times to take decisions on his own.

When he objected to Iqbal’s moves, the general secretary turned other cabinet members against him, claimed Pehlwan.

“I suspended the general secretary from his position. How can a suspended party worker suspend me,” he said, adding the cabinet is yet to finalise its decision over these matters.

Pehlwan is a tailor by profession whose induction into the party’s district chapter added new life to the party and led to several new followers and members, shared a political analyst.

House damaged in Kohat blast

Source The News

A house was partially damaged in an hand-grenade attack in Dheri Banda in the limits of City Police Station on early Wednesday, sources said. The sources said that unidentified persons lobbed a hand-grenade into the house of one Faheem that partially damaged its boundary wall but caused no loss of life. Soon after the explosion, the police and bomb disposal unit reached the spot and collective pieces of evidence.

Commercial plazas replace guava orchards in Kohat

Source Oman Tribune

The guava orchards which once surrounded the whole Kohat city in northwest Pakistan and its outskirts are diminishing fast to give way to commercial plazas, depriving the area of the much-needed greenery and fresh air.

The worst-affected locality in the city is Jarwanda which had guava orchards for hundreds of years.

Similarly, guava orchards along the Bannu bypass, Hangu road and Dhodha would once provide a patch of cold breeze in hot summer to the city dwellers and travellers. But these have now been replaced by buildings, as several housing societies are active in the area.

However, guava fruit is still served to guests and regarded as part of lunch. Guava is a specialty of Kohat.

The guava tree takes about five years to grow and start giving fruit while the growers have to wait till then for return of their investment.

But now they could erect a commercial plaza within a year and start monetary returns because of the commercialisation on Kohat-Thall highway and other major roads passing through thick guava orchards. The guava orchards once occupied thousands of acres of land in Kohat, but entrepreneurs never thought to establish a profitable juice plant. The country spends a huge amount of money on importing guava juice, but locally produced fruits are rotting due to ancient techniques of preserving the fruit, which has a shelf life of five hours in winter.

The bureaucracy and politicians never bothered to invite officials from the forestry department or especially the department created for guava research to increase its output and lure the investors to construct the juice industry. There are still hundred-years-old guava orchards near Tanda Dam the most famous of which are located in Kaghazai area whose fruit is being sold in Peshawar and Rawalpindi for Rs150 per kilogramme.

The prices of guava orchards have jumped from a few thousand rupees to millions due to their high income in famous areas which produced apple-like sweet fruit.

Security men injured in road accident

Six security personnel were injured when their vehicle met with an accident while on way to Kohat from North Waziristan, Geo News reported Tuesday.

According to the sources, the security forces’ vehicle turned turtle on Kohat-Karak Highway when the personnel were on their way to Kohat from North Waziristan. As a result of accident, six troops sustained injuries who were shifted to a hospital in Kohat.

Hospital sources told that one of the security man is in critical condition.

The cause of the accident couldn’t be ascertained yet, however, the security forces initiated investigation.

Establishment of oil, gas refinery in Karak hailed

Source The News

PESHAWAR: The Khattak Qaumi Ittehad has lauded the federal government for establishing oil and gas refinery in Karak district and approval of fund for the provision of gas supply to dozens of villages in Karak, Kohat and Hangu districts.

Speaking at a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Thursday, Khattak Qaumi Ittehad Karak chairman Rehmat Salam Khattak, who is also provincial general secretary of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, said that a representative delegation of the Khattak Ittehad met Federal Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbassi in Islamabad who approved establishment of oil and gas refinery in Karak.

He was flanked by former provincial ministers Mian Nisar Gul Kakakhel, Farid Khan Toofan, former MNA Maulana Shah Abdul Aziz and other members of the Khattak Qaumi Ittehad.

He said the delegations assured the federal minister to provide full protection to public and private sectors for making investment in oil and gas sectors in Karak district, demanding maximum employment to local people, particularly educated youths, in the oil and gas exploring companies.

Rehmat Salam said the federal minister also approved Rs6.30 billion for supplying natural gas to those villages in Karak, Kohat and Hangu districts where gas had not been provided till date despite the fact that these districts were producing oil and natural gas.He said the federal minister also assured them to allocate special quota to the skilled and educated youths in oil and gas refinery.

Two coalminers killed in Orakzai

Source Then News

KALAYA: Two workers were killed and five others sustained injuries when a coalmine collapsed in the Doli area in Orakzai Agency on Wednesday, sources said. The sources said the labourers were busy working inside the Al-Hussain Coal Company No-II when it collapsed. The locals and rescue team reached the spot and retrieved the bodies of two labourers, identified as Niamatullah belonging to Swat and Said Rehman, hailing from Shangla district. The injured labourers included Sardar Hussain, Khialzada, Rehmatullah, Latifullah and Usman were rushed to the District Headquarters Hospital in Kohat where two of them were shifted to a hospital in Peshawar. However, the bodies of two workers were shifted to hometowns for burial. The sources said the coalmine collapsed when a truck entered the mine.