Brazen attack on Peshawar police station kills 4 officers, wounds 8

PESHAWAR – Three suicide attackers stormed the Kotwali police station in Peshawar February 24, killing officers guarding its gate and throwing hand grenades before dying in the station, officials said.

Four police officers were killed, and eight others were wounded in the attack, police said. Police bullets and the terrorists’ own suicide vests killed all three attackers.

The banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)’s Abdullah Aazam Brigade claimed responsibility through spokesman Abu Zarar, who said by phone from an undisclosed location that the attack was meant to avenge the death of insurgent leader Badr Mansoor in North Waziristan.

The terrorists were wearing police uniforms and gunned down the station’s guards before entering it, injured Station House Officer Gohar Zaman said.

The attackers died in different parts of the station, Capital Police Chief Imtiaz Altaf said, explaining they were killed during a more-than-hour-long battle.

A sign of desperation

Altaf described the episode as a desperate attack from militants experiencing defeat. “It shows the efficiency of police that they gunned (them) down and they could not achieve their targets,” he said.

Medics rushed eight injured survivors to Lady Reading Hospital, where two were in critical condition, hospital spokesman Jamil Shah told Central Asia Online.

Authorities defused seven live hand grenades at the crime scene, Bomb Disposal Squad Additional Inspector General Shafqat Malik told Central Asia Online. The terrorists’ suicide vests contained 5-6kg of explosives, he added, observing that a large quantity of munitions recovered from the bodies showed the attack was planned.

The militants wanted to take hostages but failed, said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, explaining the station accommodates regular police, Frontier Reserve Police and volunteers.

Memories of the battle

“We engaged them, but they kept on changing position by throwing smoke bombs and firing, and in the end a huge blast occurred, after which I fell unconscious,” injured officer Salim told Central Asia Online.

Another injured policeman, Amjad, said he was leaving the station when the gunfire started, hitting him in the legs and knocking him unconscious.

Militants have dropped huge suicide attacks to go for more narrowly targeted violence, said Rustam Shah Mohmand, a militancy analyst and former Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan.

With military operations killing the TTP’s top commanders, it lacks a central authority and is fragmenting into dangerous splinter groups, he warned.

Call to pre-empt more attacks

With Peshawar apparently again a focus of terrorism, Provincial Police Officer Muhammad Akbar Khan Hoti February 24 ordered high-ranking Peshawar-based police officers to improve their intelligence network and stop terrorist activities before they occur. The police station attack came only one day after a car bombing killed 15 people at the Kohat Bus Stand.

At a meeting in Peshawar, he warned officers that those who failed to do their duty would be punished. He ordered attendees to implement the Standing Operating Procedure for protecting police stations, make on-duty cops wear bullet-proof vests and improve the effectiveness of the nakabandi system of roadblocks and checkpoints.

Top officials vowed to stand up to the terrorists.

“The government is committed to restore peace at all costs.

We are proud of the sacrifices the policemen of the province have rendered,” said KP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti.

"We are not going to surrender but will eliminate all these elements," Hussain said.

The Kotwali, or C Division, Police Station is in a thickly populated urban area of Peshawar, surrounded by dozens of buildings. The area is mostly residential, with hundreds of families living nearby.