Ulema, security forces targeted in fresh wave of attacks

PESHAWAR: Apart from police and security forces, the religious scholars were targeted in the fresh wave of attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The first religious scholar who was targeted in the new wave was Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani, the chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sami and the vice-chair of the famous Darul Uloom Haqqania. He was targeted by a suicide bomber on February 28 when he was coming out of the mosque at the seminary after the Friday prayers.

Another important religious scholar who was targeted in a bomb attack last week was Mufti Muneer Shakir. The firebrand speaker was targeted by a bomb when he was entering the mosque in Urmar village for Asr prayers. A blast inside a mosque in South Waziristan targeted religious scholars as well as JUIF district chief Abdullah Nadeem last week. Four people were wounded in the blast.

All the three blasts went off inside or just outside the mosques. Besides, three religious scholars were targeted in Balochistan province in the recent weeks. Before this fresh wave of terrorism, religious scholars and workers of religio-political parties came under attack many times in the recent months in KP.

On the other hand, personnel of security forces and police also came under attack on innumerable occasions in the last couple of years. Many soldiers were martyred while several were wounded in southern districts and other parts of the province.

As per a report of the Central Police Office, 26 policemen have been martyred in different districts of KP during the current year till March 15. Six more cops have lost lives in the last one week.

As many as 29 attacks targeted police in January, 24 in February and 15 till March 15. During these attacks, seven police stations, 16 police posts and nine police parties came under attack. Also, 69 terrorists were killed during the current year, as per police. As many as 186 policemen were martyred in 2023 while 153 lost lives in attacks in 2024, making it two of the worst years for police after 2009 -10.

Inspector General of Police, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Zulfiqar Hameed has recently forwarded a summary to the chief minister for increase in the martyrs package of the KP Police to bring it at par with Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan.

The force is also short of protected buildings, bullet proof vehicles and jackets, latest weapons and technology to protect its cops. The KP government has recently approved Rs 5.5 billion for all these requirements of the force.

The attacks on police in KP had started recording a surge since mid-2021 but the number of casualties went high in 2023. Most of the cops martyred in the last couple of years were in Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Lakki Marwat and other southern districts.