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.

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.

Blast in Kohat

Source The News

An explosion occurred near the city branch of the Utility Stores Corporation here on Wednesday night.

“The explosives were packed in a pressure cooker that was kept near the utility store and the blast occurred late in the night,” said a police official. Though no casualty was reported, the utility store was gutted after it caught fire, he added. He said the firefighters were trying to extinguish the fire.

Grenade attack injures three in Kohat

Source The News

Unknown miscreants threw a hand grenade at a house in Togh area of Kohat district and injured three people, police said on Monday. The incident occurred in Paracha Town where miscreants hurled a hand grenade at the house of Samin Asghar during Sehri time. Rafique, Masroor Jana and Misal Jana sustained critical wounds. The rescue teams shifted the injured to a hospital. The motive behind the incident could not be ascertained.

Kohat blast leaves two dead

Source The News

Two people were killed and five others wounded in a powerful bomb blast near Kacha Pakka area of Kohat on Thursday, Geo News reported.

Sources said the bomb was planted in a motorcycle, parked outside a mosque. The explosives went off as the people came out after Zuhar prayers.

Rescue and law enforcement agencies have rushed to the site of blast. The dead and injured have been rushed to the nearby hospital.

Kohat remote controlled blast at election office kills five

Source The News

At least five persons were killed and 21 wounded in an explosion at an election office at Kacha Pucca located on Orakzai Agency-Kohat border on Sunday morning, Geo News reported.

Police said that the explosion occurred at the joint-office of an independent election candidate for NA-39, Syed Noor Akbar from Orakzai Agency and ANP candidate for Kohat NA-14, Khurshid Begum. Both the candidates remained safe in the explosion.

DSP Mushtaque Hussain said that the blast was a result of a remote controlled explosion containing ten-kilogram explosives.

Following the blast, security forces immediately sealed the Kohat-Hangu Road and started search operation.

Blast outside a house in Kohat

Source The News

Explosives buried outside a house went off with a bang in Kohat Tuesday, however, no casualty was reported, Geo News reported.

According to police, miscreants had fixed explosives material outside the house of former mayor of Tapi area Shakoor Khan that caused blast. Due to the impact, the entrance door and glass windows were damaged but fortunately no loss of life was reported.

Planted explosives damage telephone exchange in Kohat

Source Dawn

Unidentified terrorists blew up the building of PTCL exchange in Lachi town of Kohat district in the small hours of Sunday.

Police said that terrorists planted explosives at the boundary wall of the telephone exchange building and blew it up. The blast damaged the boundary wall and the building. Nobody was injured in the explosion, they said.

Police and the bomb disposal squad reached the spot soon after the incident and collected evidence. Police registered a case against unidentified terrorists.

Blast in Kohat

Source The News

A low intensity explosive device planted outside a house at Meri colony area in Kohat district Saturday went off with a big bang however, no loss to life reported, police said.

The local police and other law enforcement agencies rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area.

Search operation in the adjoining localities was started.

The bomb was planted in a box beside the main gate of a house which inflicted minor damages at the entrance.

The reason behind the blast could be personal enmity and the possibility of sabotage had dismal chances in the incident, the local police said.

Child among four hurt in Hangu clinic blast

Source Dawn

Four persons, including a girl child, were injured in a remote controlled bomb blast at the private clinic of a lady doctor in Hangu city on Thursday.
The main gate, waiting rooms and boundary wall of the clinic were badly damaged in the explosion. The lady doctor remained unhurt in the blast, however, her assistant received injuries.
Police said that the remote controlled device had been planted at the gate of the clinic and it exploded when several patients were waiting for their turn for medical checkup. The clinic is situated in Bahadar Garhi area of Hangu city.
The injured child, Sayam, who had come to the clinic for treatment, was in serious condition, doctors said. The other people, who suffered injuries from the splinters of the gate, were identified as paramedic Khayal Mohammad, Abdul Lateef and Naeem Shah. “All the three injured are in their teens,” sources said.
They were being treated at the district headquarters hospital by the surgeons of Medics Sans Frontiers, which had its own operation theatre and emergency room inside the building.
The bomb disposal squad said that the device could be approximately two kilograms heavy because its blast was very huge and jolted the surrounding houses and buildings.
Security in the region was beefed up to avoid any untoward incident owing to the daylong visit of Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to Kohat and Orakzai Agency on Thursday.
In Peshawar, a bomb blast destroyed a portion of a house owned by a tribesman at Saadat Town in Rasheed Garhi area on Thursday morning, police said.
According to police the explosive device was planted beside the house of Saadat Khan Mohmand, who has shifted from Mohmanad Agency and dealing in property business.
An official of Yakatoot police station said that the complainant avoided to nominate anyone in the case and said that he had not enmity with anyone. Quoting the complainant, police said that his family had got no threats and he was unable to blame anyone for the blast.
An official of the bomb disposal unit said that about 800 grams explosives, packed in a canister, were used in the blast.
He said it was a time bomb but it seemed that the device exploded before its time and people remained unhurt.
About the Wednesday`s blast in Nasir Mohmand Surgical Hospital in Gulbahar, the official said that experts found no proof about use of explosives in it. It was surely a gas explosion, he said.

Six injured in roadside Kohat blast

Source The News

Six persons sustained injuries in a roadside blast in the Frontier Region Darra Adamkhel on Monday, official sources said.

The sources said that a passenger coach, on way to Bannu from Peshawar, was targeted with a remote-controlled explosion in Akhorwal area in Darra Adamkhel. Six passengers were injured when militants triggered the explosion at 9 am.

The injured were taken to hospitals in Peshawar, the sources added. The sources said that an important government official who had travelled on the road minutes before the explosion was apparently the target.

Meanwhile, the militants fired 44 rockets on villages in Jawakai and Akhorwal areas on Wednesday but no casualty was reported in the attacks, official and local sources said.

Hangu blast death toll hits 38

Source The News


Death toll in the Hangu suicide bombing rose to 38 as two more among the injured succumbed to their injuries and another four bodies were recovered from the debris of the collapsed buildings on Friday, local sources said.

The sources said the number of those injured in the bombing stood at 56. The injured were under treatment at a number of hospitals in Hangu, Kohat and Peshawar. Conditions at the government hospital in Hangu were stated to be inadequate to cope with the rush of the injured on the day of the blast.

As many as 30 shops, hotels, the building of the Hangu Press Club, the offices of a private cellular company, district courts and a police station were destroyed in the deadly explosion. Scenes of destruction were still evident all over the place a day after the explosion.

Residents lamented the slow pace of rescue work and the government’s indifference to their plight. They pointed out that only one excavator and one tractor-trolley were available for the rescue operation.

The people doing rescue work and visiting the place to see the destruction mostly blamed outsiders for the blast and said inimical powers were trying to harm Pakistan. Out of fear or other reasons, not many people were blaming the Taliban for the attack even though they had claimed responsibility for the bombing.

District Coordination Officer Abdul Rasheed said that a black pick-up vehicle carrying 600 kilograms of explosives was used in the bombing. He said the vehicle had come from Thall to Hangu and clues had been found to hunt down the perpetrators of the sabotage act. The official said the owner of the vehicle had been identified and the engine had been found.

Abdul Rasheed said Hangu was surrounded by three tribal agencies due to which the militants were taking shelter there after carrying out acts of subversion. He said security had been beefed up to check the activities of anti-state elements and prevent repetition of such incidents.

Meanwhile, Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan threatened to continue attacking government installations. He warned the people to avoid milling around government offices. He had earlier claimed responsibility for the Hangu bombing.

kohat tunnel closed

kohat tunnel has been closed due to bomb blast in the tunnel. Due to this blast four people were killed in vehicle carrying expolsives.

The Kohat Attack on Bus

Source The News

The suicide attack on a bus – with mostly Shia passengers aboard – as it prepared to pull out from the crowded Tirah Bazaar in Kohat for the Orakzai Agency is a reminder of just how difficult it is to vanquish sectarian hatred. Only days ago Shia and Sunni tribal elders had reached an agreement to end bloodshed which has claimed hundreds of lives. Eighteen people died in the suicide bombing carried out by a child who a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister is said to have described as no more than 14 years old. Another 32 were injured. The bomber too is a victim of circumstances that have led to teenagers being brainwashed and then sent out to commit the most evil deeds, often in the name of religion. We do not know precisely what lies they are told and what propaganda they are fed – but it is not hard to imagine. The military has already established one institution for rehabilitating such bombers and other youngsters recruited by the militants. We need many more such centres and also an operation to rescue future bombers who still remain in the clutches of the Taliban and other groups engaged in violence.




This latest attack of course comes just as the month of Muharram begins. It is tragic that a month holy to all Muslims should have turned into an occasion when so many lives are lost. There is a need of course to review security across the country so that further bloodshed can be avoided. But there is a need also to do more. One question we should be asking is why our intelligence agencies have not been more successful in infiltrating the various terrorist outfits and gaining access to their power structures. This is essential both to pick up information of what is planned and to work towards the dismantling of groups that have created so much mayhem. We must also dismantle what they preach. Sectarian hatred is now common in many places. The killing of innocent people is an outcome of this. We need then to rekindle a spirit of tolerance, to persuade people that they must accept diversity of all kinds and learn to coexist. A strategy towards this end must be devised.

bomb attack on CD shop in Lachi bazar

Nine persons were injured in a bomb blast at a CD shop in Lachi Bazaar of Kohat district on Tuesday.


Police said that militants had planted a time device outside the CD shop near Tehsil Municipal Office in Lachi Bazaar. The device went off and destroyed the shop completely, they said.

They said that at least nine persons received injuries in the blast, which created panic in the busy bazaar, situated on Indus Highway.

The owner of the shop, Abdur Rehman, who was seriously injured in the blast, was shifted to KDA hospital along with other victims.

The bomb disposal squad said that an improvised explosive device weighing about four kilograms was used in the blast.

This was the second blast in Lachi where militants have been issuing life threats to the owners of CD shops since long.

Passenger van blown up: 18 die in Kohat suicide blast

Source Dawn

Eighteen people were killed and 32 others injured when a suicide bomber blew up a passenger van at a bus stand in the busy Teerah bazaar here on Wednesday.


The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack.

The blast took place at around 1.50pm when people were returning home in Lower Orakzai Agency from the bazaar. The explosion damaged 11 other vehicles.

The police media cell said the suicide bomber appeared to be 18 to 20 years old and his jacket contained six kilograms of explosives.

The van caught fire after the blast and passengers suffered fatal burn injuries. The vehicle packed with passengers was about to leave for And Khel in Lower Orakzai when the bomber struck, Gul Haider, an eyewitness, told this correspondent.

“I came to Kohat for shopping and just crossed the vehicle after placing goods in a pick-up parked at the bus stand. I saw parts of human body scattered all around and people running for safety,” he added.

The manager of the bus stand said that the blast also killed or injured some passengers in a nearby vehicle bound for Kalaya.

Security personnel cordoned off the area and tightened security at all the points of entry into Kohat and Hangu districts.

Police said they had found the head and legs of the suicide bomber and sent them to Peshawar for DNA tests.

The bodies and the injured were taken to the KDA Divisional Headquarters Hospital and Women and Children Hospital. Two women and a child were among the injured.

The deceased were identified as Ali Hassan, Janan Ali, Raza Ali, Hassan Ali, Zakat Ali, Syed Gul Hassan, Ali Mohammad, Bahar Ali, Shaiwan Ali, Mir Jan Ali, Syed Ameer Imam, Tazeem Ali, Mir Had Ali, Noor Rehman Jan, Javed Ali, Saqib Ali, Bakht Jamal and Abdul Aziz.

The injured are: Malik Rehman, Irshad Ali, Elham Ali, Ajmer Ali, Ashiq Ali, Ms Samina, Ms Takhmina, Gul Mekh, Hassan Faqeer, Aukhar Gul, Mirza Ali, Maweez Khan, Noor Hassan Shah, Mir Hassan, Rasheed Ali, Said Noor, Ansar Ali, Raz Hussain, Asim Raza, Abad Ali, Habib Raza, Noor Khatma (minor girl), Basheer Ali, Ismail, Naushad Ali, Jumma Gul, Ali Noor, Gul Wali, Ramzan Ali, Mir Azam, Mir Haider Hussain and Naatullah.


Kohat division commissioner Khalid Khan Umerzai said: “We have 197,000 internally displaced people in Kohat. I have sent more than 4,400 families over the past four days to Orakzai Agency, but their presence in such a large number is an imminent threat to security.” Dawn


Usman Ali, a spokesman for the TTP Kohat division, told on telephone: “One of our fidayeen has carried out the attack. I cannot disclose his name at this stage. I can only confirm that my superiors ordered the attack.”

It was second such attack at the bus stand over the past seven months. Two people were killed when a bomb exploded inside the office of the bus stand manager on June 1.

Three children hurt in Kohat grenade attack

Source Dawn

Three children were injured in a grenade attack on a house in Jungle Khel here on Wednesday.


Police said that unidentified terrorists lobbed a hand-grenade on the house of one Mukammal Shah in Gulshanabad area of Jungle Khel. As a result, his grand children including, Muavia, Bushra and Aamna, were injured. They were admitted to the KDA divisional hospital.

Police have registered a case against unknown attackers on the complaint of Mr Shah.

Earlier in the day, Kohat police arrested 28 alleged criminals, including four proclaimed offenders, and recovered weapons during a search operation in various parts of the district.

Police also seized five kalashnikovs, seven rifles, two repeaters, six shotguns, 21 pistols and 1,875 cartridges. An alleged drug peddler, Ghudair Hussain was also arrested from Alizai.

CD shop attacked

Source Dawn

A CD shop was slightly damaged in a bomb blast in Pat Bazaar area of Hangu on Friday.


Police said that an unidentified man put a computer packed with 5kg explosives inside the CD shop and left. The owner of the shop got suspicious and threw the CPU outside the shop where it exploded with a big bang.

No loss of life was reported in the incident. The Hangu city police have registered a case and started investigation.

Meanwhile, rumours about the entry of a suicide bomber resulted in closure of business centres and schools in Kohat on Friday. Fear gripped the area following news of entrance of a suicide bomber in the city. Later it was learnt that the police found an unattended vehicle at the old bus stand. The bomb disposal squad was called, but nothing suspicious was recovered.

Strange hearts that care and kill children

Source Dawn

Before blasting the Police Colony that killed 20 people here last week, the three terrorists behind the attack had told children to keep away from their explosives-laden vehicle, according to eyewitnesses.


Shafiur Rehman, a technician at the control room of Police Lines whose quarter was destroyed in the blast, told Dawn that people had seen three persons talking to each other outside the colony where the vehicle had been parked.

“I have been residing in the colony for 16 years where mostly Grade IV employees live for whom free accommodation was not less than a blessing. Now hopes and happiness of some of us lie buried under rubble. One of the residents lost his wife and four children. Others lost all their children and have no desire to live here any more,” he said.

Residents of the colony going to mosque, after breaking the fast, saw a double cabin pick-up parked outside the colony and two suspicious-looking motorcyclists talking to each other nearby. “We took them to be non-locals and thought of inviting them to dinner after returning from the mosque,” recalled Mr Rehman.

Some children who survived the blast told their parents that the vehicle stuck in a drain near the main entrance while being driven into the colony. Three bearded men came out of it and asked the children playing very close to their vehicle to scamper as it is going to blow up.

After delivering the warning they themselves ran towards the motorcyclists waiting for them.

“There were two motorcyclists waiting outside the colony. One was waiting at Police Lines side i.e. north and the other in the south at Hangu bypass side to take out the driver safely in case one of them was stuck in the traffic jam or police cordon after the blast,” eyewitnesses said.


They said that as there was no security at the time of Iftar the bomber easily left towards the bypass on the motorcycle.


The investigators say had the residents of the colony informed police about the presence of suspicious vehicle and persons the disaster could have been avoided.

After lapse of nine days none of the planners and the executors of the bomb blast has been traced.

Inspector General of Police Fiaz Khan Toru had claimed that they would arrest the culprits behind the gory incident within 48 hours during visit of the site along with the corps commander, Peshawar.

Kohat and more

Source Daily Times

Merciless and vengeful, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has struck once again, this time in a police colony in Kohat. Detonating an explosives-laden pickup inside the compound, just behind the guarded police lines, the blast ripped through almost 300 buildings, including schools, markets and residential homes. The scenes were truly horrific as the majority of the 20 killed were women and children who were inside their homes during iftaar time. It is expected that the death toll will rise as there were still some people trapped under the rubble of the TTP’s latest attack.




Vowing to take revenge for the drone strikes in the tribal areas, the TTP has promised more attacks on security and government officials. Such grim announcements and brutal massacres should not come as a surprise as the past week has demonstrated just how determined the militants are to step up their game now that the military’s attention has been diverted towards flood relief. Anyone who thought that the softest targets in society — women, children and residential areas — would be safe, has not understood the reality of the shadowy enemy we are up against. The militants aim to cause maximum damage, widespread fear and loss of lives to prove their point; what better way than to target the most vulnerable? That is why Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain has urged the security forces to implement well-coordinated and effective action against the terrorists. He has stated that it is vital that military attention be diverted from the floods to the insurgency once again.



After such an attack and chilling warning, it is vital that all efforts be taken to protect such areas. When it has been proclaimed that government, security and police officials are under the most threat, nothing should be left to chance; check-posts, apart from being an irritant, have done nothing to secure the urban and settled areas. We need better intelligence to prevent the militants from moving ahead with their dastardly mission. An insecure security force translates into one that is incapable of securing the citizenry.



As further evidence of the virulent spread of terrorism in all its manifestations, the Vice Chancellor (VC) of Islamia College University, Dr Ajmal Khan, was kidnapped on Tuesday by suspected militants. Dr Ajmal is the cousin of Awami National Party’s Chief Asfandyar Wali Khan. It is suspected that the VC has been taken to the Khyber Agency in an eerily similar fashion to the November 2009 kidnapping of the VC of Kohat University of Science and Technology, Dr Lutfullah Kakakhel, who was also spirited off and kept in captivity by the militants for six months. Targeting senior academics is in line with the Taliban view of obliterating education. Another girls school has been blown up in Kalam. This is sadly a routine activity for the militants.



The terrorists are spreading and setting off their attacks like literal hand grenades in almost all regions of the country — tribal and urban. From Kohat to Hangu, where a blast targeting two police mobile vans killed one constable, and Karachi, where an activist of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat was gunned down, no place seems safe from the grip of terrorism. It is time that a full throttle plan is enforced against this scourge that is making its malignant presence felt every single day.



It is time that the flood relief transitioned into rehabilitation. It is time that the government and civil administration of the country take over managing the flood efforts from the army so that an organised military offensive once again strikes at the heart of the Taliban insurgency. Without the army fully engaging in eliminating the terrorists, such attacks are likely to be witnessed with increasing frequency. *