An explosion occurred near a police vehicle in the limits of Budh Bir police station in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, police said on Sunday.
Police say that no casualties have been reported. He said that Nasir Khan, the in-charge of Shaikhan Chowki, was on patrol when an improvised explosive device exploded near his vehicle in the area.
According to the police, the blast was triggered by a remote control device and the explosives were placed inside a paint can.
After the incident, the police collected the evidence from the scene. The bomb disposal unit was also called to the accident site.
The bomb disposal unit says that one kilogram of explosive material was used in the blast, which damaged the vehicle.
Law and order situation
The last two months of 2022 saw the law and order situation go south in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as threats and attacks on security forces as well as top political figures increased.
According to a report by JEE News, police were on high alert across the province following a recent spike in attacks in areas including Peshawar, southern districts and Mardan area.
The publication quoted a source as saying: “Apart from the police, senior politicians have complained of receiving threats. Some of their homes have also come under grenade attack.
On December 11, Awami National Party (ANP) provincial spokesperson Samar Bilor said that their provincial president Amil Wali Khan had received a phone call about a plan to assassinate him.
Samar said that the protection of their leadership was the responsibility of the state, adding that if the state did not act, they would have no other option but to take the protection of their leaders into their own hands.
The ANP leader had expressed similar concerns in a statement a few days ago, warning the state, government and “sympathizers of terrorists” that Amil Vali is the heir to Vali Bagh politics and if any harm is done to him Don’t complain.
Bilor added that ‘Apart from Amil Wali Khan, Sardar Hussain Babak and others have also received threats while MPA Faisal Zeb’s house was attacked twice in the last few weeks’.
It should be noted that Samar’s husband Haroon Bilor and father-in-law Bashir Ahmad Bilor were martyred in separate suicide attacks along with other party workers.
Apart from the attack on ANP MPA Faisal Zeb’s house in Shangla, a hand grenade was hurled at party senator Hidayatullah’s house in Peshawar last year.
The ANP has lost hundreds of its workers in attacks across KP over the past 15 years, including some of its top leaders, such as senior minister Bashir Bilor. While its central president Asfad Yar Wali Khan, Ghulam Ahmad Bilor, Mian Iftikhar Hussain and many others have narrowly escaped attacks in the past.
Attacks on politicians
In the recent spate of violence, politicians belonging to other political parties have either been attacked or threatened.
An official said that between Saturday and Sunday, a hand grenade was thrown at the house of former provincial minister Haji Muhammad Javed in Gulbahar Peshawar, causing no loss of life or property.
In Kohat, a hand grenade was hurled at the house of former federal minister Shehryar Afridi, while in Dera Ismail Khan, gunmen attacked the residence of PTI’s MPA Aaza Khan Gandapur, resulting in the death of a policeman. Really happened.
PTI MPA Malik Liaquat was also injured in an attack on his vehicle in Lower Dir in August, while four others, including his brother and nephew, lost their lives in the attack.
Businessmen and political activists have been receiving extortion calls for the past few months. Most of these incidents are not even reported to the police.
Terrorist incidents
The report said that there has been an increase in the wave of terrorist attacks across the province in the last few months. According to official data, at least 118 terror incidents were reported in KP from mid-August to the last week of November.
At least 26 police personnel, 12 personnel from other law enforcement agencies and 17 civilians were killed in terror incidents across KP. Moreover, 18 police personnel, 10 civilians and 37 law enforcement officials were injured in these attacks.
A dozen districts including Peshawar, Mardan, Bajaur, Mohmand, Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Kohat, Bannu and Nowshera came under attack in November.
Meanwhile, the KP Police claims to have stepped up operations against terrorists and said that during the first 10 months of 2022, at least 539 suspected terrorists and ad criminals were arrested in the province.
Annual reports
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been under constant terror attacks with 310 attacks last year and its newly merged districts that were formerly in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
According to an annual report released by the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), more than 62 percent of the attacks were targeted in KP alone.
KP (including erstwhile FATA) again topped the list with over a thousand casualties, of which 625 were killed and the rest were seriously injured.
Security forces lost 285 personnel, with 42 casualties in December alone. Methods of attack include improvised explosive devices (IEDs) used in ambushes, suicide attacks and raids on security posts, mostly in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border areas.
Comparing 2022 with the previous year, KP and erstwhile FATA combined had 226 more deaths than in 2021.
