Arrest of ASWJ activists protested in Hangu

Source The News

 The activists of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) on Tuesday staged protest against the arrest of their colleagues.

The angry protesters blocked the Hangu-Kohat road for traffic for two hours and chanted slogans against the officials.Speaking on the occasion, the protesters led by Mufti Imran, Shad Muhammad Shinwari and others accused the police of harassing the ASWJ leaders. They alleged five cops of the Hangu Police Station had insulted ASWJ leader Mufti Imran. They asked the government to transfer the officials involved in manhandling the leader within three days.

The police claimed to have launched a crackdown against suspected persons in the Hangu town and adjoining areas. However, the ASWJ leaders claimed that their party activists had been arrested in the crackdown.

They warned of launching a protest campaign if the district administration continued, what they said was, harassing their party activists. They threatened to block the Hangu-Kohat road permanently if action was not taken against the corrupt officials in the district.

Youth killed in bid to stop suicide attack

Source Dawn

A student was killed outside a school in Ibrahemzai area in Hangu on Monday when a suicide attacker he was trying to stop blew himself up, police said.

The suicide bomber tried to enter the school building when Aitezaz Hussain, a student of class IX in Government High School Ibrahemzai, stopped him.

A police official, Ali Murtaza, told Dawn that the suicide bomber was walking towards the school at around 8am when the assembly was being held in its main ground. Aitezaz became suspicious of the way he moved and asked him to stop. But the bomber detonated the explosives strapped to his body.

The police official said that the suicide bomber wanted to target the assembly. He said Aitezaz had sacrificed his life to save other students.

Hangu city police registered a case.

police arrested terrorist fromHangu

Source Dawn

Police claimed to have arrested two terrorists and recovered explosives and other items used in bomb making during an operation in Doaba area of Hangu on Thursday.

Acting on a tip-off, police besieged a house in Sarkikhel area of Doaba near the border of Orakzai Agency and asked the terrorist, hiding there, to surrender. But the terrorists opened firing on the police party. After exchange of fire for an hour, the terrorists surrendered, police said. They said that more than three kilograms of explosives, detonators, 13 meter detonating cord, two remote controls, two batteries and a wire cutter were recovered from the house.

Kidnapped people released in Hangu

Source Dawn

Hangu police got four people released from kidnappers and arrested an accused on Friday.

The police said that the alleged kidnappers, including Hazrat Daud, Salamat Shah and Mohammad Mustafa of Orakzai Agency, had kidnapped five people from Hangu and demanded Rs5.5 million ransom. Their victims were identified as Amir, Vaqar, Mohammad Israr and Abdul Qadir.

They said that the kidnappers had taken the four to Navidad Mountains and were planning to shift them to tribal area when the police raided their hideout and recovered the victims. An alleged accomplice of the kidnappers was also arrested. The police have registered a case against the accused.

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.

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.

Militant held in Hangu

The police claimed to have arrested a militant and seized five threatening letters from his possession at Jawazra checkpoint on Friday. Talking to reporters, SHO Islam Din said the police stopped a passenger coach at Jawazra checkpoint during a routine checking.


The police during body search recovered threatening letters from a man identified as Attiqur Rehman, resident of Kaghazo area in Kohat district. “Five letters were recovered from him, which were written to five separate persons to pay Rs1.5 each,” the SHO said, adding that the identity of the persons could not be disclosed. He said the suspected person had links with the militants.

Meanwhile, a banned outfit claimed responsibility for the killing of father, nephew and guard of the former union council nazim Pir Amir Faisal on January 23. The group through leaflets circulated in the area said that the former nazim Pir Amir Faisal was still on the hit-list for running non-governmental organisation in the district. It warned those running the NGOs in the district would meet the same fate.

Lack of college staff protested in Hangu

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The students of Government Degree College here Monday blocked Kohat-Hangu Road to protest shortage of the teaching staff and lack of other facilities in the college.

Speaking on the occasion, student leader Musarrat Khan Afridi said the teaching staff for English, Mathematics and Chemistry was not available at the collage. He deplored that there were no proper arrangements for provision of potable water to the students. He threatened to continue protest if the college administration failed to address the problems being faced by the students.

“I have already brought the issue into the notice of higher authorities but still the government has not rendered anything in this regard,” Zakaullah, principal of the college said. Meanwhile, District Coordination Officer Musaddiq, Assistant Coordination Officer Nazar Gul and Deputy Superintendent of Police Farid Khan assured the students to resolve their problems.