15 policemen martyred, three injured in Bannu suicide attack on checkpoint

At least 15 police personnel have been martyred in addition to three who were injured when terrorists drove a vehicle loaded with explosives into the Fateh Khel police checkpost in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province's Bannu district late Saturday night and resulted in an explosion that completely demolished the checkpost and buried many police personnel in its debris, according to an official from the Bannu Police on Sunday.

According to Sajjad Khan, DIG Bannu, "There was a powerful explosion in which there was heavy damage at the checkpost and in which many police personnel were trapped under the debris."

Immediately after the incident, rescue teams initiated their rescue mission by pulling out three injured police personnel from under the debris, and search and rescue operations were still ongoing at the time of this report.

The martyred police personnel have been named as Rehmat Ayaz, Sanaullah, Niaz Ali (Driver), Habib, Saadullah Jan (Driver), Kamran, son of Khan Sikandar, Kamran, Noorullah, Kamran, Abid Jani, Imran, Kaleemullah, Sadiqullah, Munir Alam Khan, Rahatullah Khan, and Farooq.

The injured police personnel include Mujrim Feroz, Hayatullah, and Qadarullah.

DIG Khan visited DHQ Hospital late Saturday evening to inquire about the condition of the injured personnel.

In an interview with the media in the hospital, DIG said that the morale of the Bannu Police remained unaffected despite the attack. “Terrorists will never succeed in their nefarious plans,” DIG Sajjad Khan said, and added that the attack would turn out to be the terrorists’ “last cowardly act”.

He said that Bannu Police would “eliminate each terrorist individually” and ensure that there remains no trace of them anywhere in the area. None of the militant groups immediately took ownership of the attack.

So strong was the blast that its sound was heard even at far distances, and besides causing destruction at the police post, the blast also inflicted heavy damage to the residential areas.

According to eyewitnesses, the police post was fully demolished in the blast, and many police personnel lay buried under the rubble. In addition, the roofs of some neighboring houses were also blown away by the sheer power of the explosion.