LAKKI MARWAT: A policeman accompanying a polio team was martyred when unidentified miscreants targeted him in Miryan area of Bannu district on Wednesday, an official said.

He said lower head constable (LHC) Kamran Khan was on the security duty with polio workers in Akhundkhel area when he came under the attack. The official said Kamran received serious bullet wounds and was rushed to a hospital where he was declared dead.

Later, the body was taken to the Iqbal Shaheed Police Lines for offering funeral prayers after completing medico-legal formalities in the hospital.

Divisional commissioner Parweiz Sabatkhel, regional police officer Qasim Ali Khan, district police officer Iftekhar Shah, relatives of the deceased and people from different walks of life attended the funeral.

Police and civil administration officials placed floral wreaths on his coffin and paid tributes to him for offering supreme sacrifice in the line of duty.

Later, the martyred cop was laid to rest at a graveyard in his ancestral Lalozai Surani village.

RPO Qasim Ali along with district police officer also inspected the site of the occurrence and issued instructions to officials to trace the assailants without delay. He said terrorists could not shatter the strong resolve of policemen, who were committed to protecting their soil by eliminating the menace of terrorism.

Also on Wednesday, unknown motorcyclists shot dead a wildlife department’s watcher in Chakdadan area of Bannu.

The police and wildlife department officials said the victim, identified as Razal Ali Khan, a resident of Ismailkhel, was attacked when he was going to the office of the divisional forest officer to perform duty there.

The police said the deceased official was in uniform and the assailants might have mistaken him as a policeman. They said the body was shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital for postmortem.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2023