Six members of a family were killed in a “mortar shell” blast inside their residence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district on Tuesday evening.
According to District Police Officer Bannu Yasir Afridi, the explosion took place inside a room of the house situated within the limits of Haved police station.
It occurred when a 60-millimetre mortar shell exploded inside the house, according to KP police spokesperson Waqar Khan. As a result, a man- who was a teacher -his wife and their four children were killed.
The spokesperson said it had been confirmed that the blast was caused by some sort of an artillery shell. Police cannot say at this point exactly what type of shell it was and whether it was lying inside the house or came from the outside, the official told private channel.
However, he added that police have collected all evidence which will be examined in the laboratory to determine the nature of the explosion. DPO Afridi had earlier said a bomb disposal squad was at the site of the incident and that an investigation into the incident was underway.
CTD official shot dead in broad daylight
Meanwhile, An officer of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) was gunned down in broad daylight in Dera Ismail Khan’s Muslim Bazaar on Tuesday. According to police, the firing incident was reported near Qureshi Walan area where unidentified armed assailants opened fire on the CTD official. He was being moved to nearby hospital but died on the way.
The deceased official has been identified as Kamran. The police cordoned off the area to collect evidences. Further investigation is underway, said the police.
An infamous incident of Sahiwal encounter led by CTD officials, that killed a three unarmed members of an innocent family, triggered a nationwide debate on ‘absolute powers’ given to law enforcers to kill anyone.
Four people, including two women, were killed in a shady encounter involving the Punjab police’s Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on a highway in the Qadirabad area of Sahiwal on January 19. The Sahiwal incident sent shock waves across the country after one of the surviving children who witnessed the episode refuted the version of the CTD. The CTD had identified one of the deceased as Zeeshan. The department says he was wanted in several cases of crime, including the kidnapping of Ali Haider Gilani, the son of former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani and several American citizens. It also says he was the deputy chief of a banned outfit.
Published in Daily Times, January 30th 2019.
