2:47 AM
PESHAWAR: Armed militants on Saturday attacked the DPO’s office in Dera Ismail Khan.
According to police, eight to ten militants attacked the police station using hand grenades and rockets. An exchange of fire was being reported between security personnel and the attackers.
Interior minister Rehman Malik said several people including police and civilians were wounded.
“Terrorists attacked security forces,” he told reporters.
Police sources said two of the attackers were dressed in police uniforms.
The attackers targeted the main police station in Dera Ismail Khan City, provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told journalists.
The body of a suicide bomber was lying at the gate of the police station, he said. Two other militants were also dead.
Police spokesman Mohammad Hanif said police shot dead two militants and at least one other blew himself up.
About half a dozen militants stormed the station located in a sensitive area housing government offices, district courts and lawyers’ offices, he said.
They hurled hand grenades and opened fire on the office of district police chief, he said.
Authorities summoned army and paramilitary troops and commandos ringed the area, police said.
The neighbouring offices were also evacuated, and forces started an operation.
Initial reports suggest that the attackers entered the building from the back using a ladder.
Four dead bodies have been shifted to a hospital. Three of them are suspected to be from North Waziristan and the police are suspecting that they might be the militants who attacked the office.
K-P Information Minister Mian Iftikhar said that the attackers were probably planning the attack since the past 15 days, but nothing can be said unless the official statements are released.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik, commending the security forces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said that there should be a “force within the force” to provide complete security to their convoys.
Talking to the media in Rawalpindi, Malik said that the Taliban are now targeting the people who provide security, and added that there will no talks with them unless they give up their weapons.
“I still invite them for talks, but not with arms and ammunition… Who would want to talk to murderers?” he said.
Security sources said that two policemen were injured in the firing. They claimed to have killed three potential suicide bombers in retaliation.
According to initial reports, two dead bodies have been retrieved from the DPO office after the clearance operation. Reports suggest that the bombers did not detonate themselves, but their explosives went off when the police fired at them.
Our correspondent reported that at least two dead bodies were retrieved from the DPO office after the clearance operation.
An eyewitness told that he saw at least three dead bodies. He said that they were not wearing the police uniform, but it was still not known whether they were police officials, attackers or civilians.
The DPO office has been cleared and the people stuck inside the building have been rescued by the security officials.
They also claimed that there were five militants who stormed the police station wearing police uniforms.
Security personnel have taken charge of the DPO office.
Three terrorists have been killed in the encounter.
In November last year, two police officers were killed — including an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) — and three others were injured when militants carrying rocket propelled grenades and other heavy arms attacked a police station in DI Khan.
“This police station was our target and our Mujahideens have carried out this attack,” the TTP’s main spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, had told reporters. “We accept responsibility for the attack”.
Circuit House, the PTCL office, all courts and the high court are located in the area surrounding the DPO office.
All roads leading up to the DPO office have been sealed.
Two men were reported to have detonated themselves after they attacked the office using hand grenades.
A Taliban militant and his wife had carried out a suicide bombing on a police station in DI Khan on June 25, 2011. Around 12 policemen were killed in the attack which lasted for several hours.
Posted in: NATIONAL
