F.P. Report
MINGORA: The death toll of the twin explosions at the police station of counter terrorism department at Kabal here Tuesday mounted to 16 and injured 51 others. According to district police spokesman, three more critically injured were expired in hospitals.
The dead also include 14 policemen and two civilians. The dead policemen including constable Khalilur Rehman, sub inspector Ashraf Ali, constable Ambar Khan and sub inspector Abdullah. The injured were being treated at different hospitals including Saidu Sharif hospital. The critically injured were shifted to Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar.
The collective funeral of the martyred policemen would be offered at Police Lines Swat at 11am on Tuesday. DIG CTD Khalid Sohail has told media that blast was apparently not a suicide attack. He said there was no attack or firing on the police station and the explosion occurred at a place where ammunition, arms and mortar shells were stored.
The DIG said the cause of the explosion that whether it happened due to negligence or something else was being investigated. He said that bomb disposal squads were also conducting an investigation of the explosion that caused collapsed of the station. Akhtar Hayat Gandapor, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of Police said security officials were on high alert throughout the province and the incident would be investigated.
Secretary Health, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mahmood Aslam Wazir in a statement here said that leaves of all healthcare staff have been cancelled and hospitals of Swat were kept at high alert position. He declared health emergency in district Swat and kept all the hospitals at red alert here. The Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar was also put on high alert to cope with emergencies.
He said all staff was directed to report to their duty stations while regional blood center Swat was mobilized to provide blood and blood products immediately to the hospitals. He said medicines have been pooled-up to all the hospitals across Swat and all medics and paramedics plus auxiliary staff was available and well equipped to provide relief to the victims.
He said that ICUs and Critical Care Units of Saidu Group of Teaching Hospital (SGTH) Saidu Sharif were put on red alert with all the needed medicine and machines availability ensured. Aslam Wazir directed all the District Health Officers and medical superintendents to keep a good buffer of medicine and commodities at the respective health facilities under their jurisdiction and to respond well to any untoward situation.
We say no to terrorism; Swat people come to roads
Shafi Ullah
MINGORA: Thousands of people come out and held a huge protests took place to the main city of Mingora and Kabal on Tuesday against the bomb blasts that occurred Monday evening in Kabal Police Lines, killing 17 people and leaving about 73 persons injured. Though the KP police termed the blasts occurred at a weapon storage facility inside an old office of the Counter Terrorism Department on the premises of the police station, however, people in Swat raised questions on police claims and stated it was an incident of terrorism.
Soon after the blasts, all walks of life in Swat condemned the attack announcing protests in Kabal and Mingora bazaar. The protest at Kabal Bazaar was organized by Swat Olasi Pasoon (Swat Public Uprising), while Swat Quami Jirga organized the protest at Nishat Chowk Mingora. Swat Olasi Pasoon’s Fawad Khan, Aftab Khan, Nazif Lala, Muhammad Ali Dagiwal, Idrees Bacha, PkMAP’s Khurshid Kaka Ji, Mukhtiyar Yousafzai, Dr Khalid, Abdul Jabbar Khan, Ayoub Asharey, Hameedul Haq, Irfan Chattan and others addressed the gatherings.
The protests were attended by a large number of people from across the Swat condemning the attacks. They demanded durable peace in Swat and other Pashtun belts and said that the people of Malakand division would no more be deceived under terrorism dramas. “We don’t believe that it was a blast that occurred at the weapon storage facility caused by an electrical short circuit. Looking to the ground reality and facts, it does not seem like a short circuit blast but a planned incident of terrorism,” the speakers said, adding that if it by any chance it was believed that it was an accidental blast at the weapon storage facility, then it seemed an unprecedented irresponsible act.
They said that Pashtun would no more tolerate terrorism on their land as they believed that terrorism in the country was always carried out for dollars. “We say no to terrorism and no to the creation of fake conflict carried out for dollars,” they said. They said that Pashtuns were peaceful and had no space for militancy and terrorism on their land. “In 2007, wrong news was spread against us that the Pashtun are terrorists and they support terrorism, and that time we kept saying that Pashtun were not terrorists, but very few people believed us,” they said, adding that this time they announce it to the entire world that they would not let any terrorist on their land. They said that if terrorists were tried to bring back to Malakand division, the people of Swat would take action against them as they lost trust in the security forces. They demanded that an independent and transparent inquiry must be made to investigate the reality of the blasts that occurred in Kabal Police Lines and bring the facts in front of people.
