Policeman killed, 2 injured in NW Pakistan explosion
A policeman was killed and two others including a passerby and a policeman were injured when an explosion hit a police van in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province on Friday, police and rescue teams said.
The incident happened in the busy Karkhano Market of the provincial capital Peshawar where some unknown militants targeted the police vehicle, Capital City Police Officer of Peshawar Abbas Ahsan told media after inspecting the site.
He said that further inves-tigation into the attack is under-way but apparently the blast hit the people sitting in front of the police van when it was on its routine patrolling in the city.
Earlier, a rescue organization Edhi Foundation which shifted the injured to the hospital, as well as a police statement said that the cops were targeted when they were launching an operation in the market to ensure compliance with COVID-19 related guidelines.
Sher Gul from the Edhi Foun-dation in the province, told Xin-hua that a shopkeeper was being shifted to a police station when the attack was laun-ched.
Talking to Xinhua, Station House Officer of Hayatabad area of the city Imtiaz Khan, where the market is located, said that the operation to ensure the guidelines was also under-way in the market by another police party, but the attack was launched at the police who patrol around the area at almost the same time every day.
He said that initial investiga-tion suggested that the militants hurled a hand grenade at the moving vehicle before fleeing the scene.
A search operation is under-way in the area to nab the fleeing militants, while further inves-tigation is underway at the site which has been sealed by the investigation teams, he added.
No group or individual has claimed the attack yet.
The injured were shifted to a nearby hospital where the passerby was discharged after first aid whereas the policeman is in a critical condition, hospital sources told Xinhua.
Xinhua