LAKKI MARWAT: The police on Sunday claimed to have repelled a midnight attack on a police station in the Bakkakhel town of Bannu district.

A police official said over a dozen terrorists attacked the police station. However, the cops responded effectively and thwarted their nefarious plan to taking over the building.

“The policemen were alert and fought bravely, forcing the militants to flee the area,” he said.

Meanwhile, the police thwarted a sabotage bid by defusing explosives in the Ghoriwala town of Bannu. The official said the explosives were seized during an intelligence-based operation in the area.

He said the police found a bag containing hand grenades and explosives which were later defused by the experts of bomb disposal squad,” he said.

He said the law enforcers also arrested several suspects and destroyed the hideouts of miscreants and criminals’ gangs.

Separately, a gas pipeline was blown up with explosives in the Bettani subdivision of Lakki Marwat on Saturday night.

A police official said terrorists planted a homemade bomb along the pipeline in the Ratanzai area which went off with a bang. He said the blast damaged the pipeline and disrupted gas supply to several regions.

Some local residents said that they heard a powerful explosion followed by a loud roaring gas leakage sound. They said that after the blast, Bittani tehsil council chairman Maulana Anwar Badshah, local tribesmen and police reached the venue to prevent any further mishap.

The police official said that the explosion damaged the gas infrastructure and broke the pipeline into pieces. He said that a large contingent from the nearby police stations launched a search for the perpetrators of the sabotage attack in the region.

It is pertinent to mention here that multiple bomb attacks targeting the gas infrastructure have taken place in the district during the last over one month. The main pipeline supplying gas to Punjab was repeatedly attacked with improvised explosive devices by terrorists in the Wanda Amir and Torwah areas in the limits of Saddar police station.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2025