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Friday March 29, 2024

14 injured as suicide bomber hits FC convoy in Nowshera

By Mushtaq Paracha
May 18, 2018

NOWSHERA: Fourteen persons, including seven soldiers, sustained injuries in a suicide attack on the convoy of the Frontier Corps (FC) at the Kutchery Chowk near the Railway Phatak here Thursday.

The sources said a suicide bomber targeted the convoy of the paramilitary FC's Thall Scouts as soon as it reached the Kutchery Chowk in Nowshera at noon. The sources added that the suicide bomber struck one of the vehicles transporting the FC personnel.

The sources said that six FC soldiers onboard the vehicle, along with an army soldier and seven civilians, including women, sustained injuries in the explosion. The security forces cordoned off the area soon after the attack and blocked the Grand Trunk (GT) Road and Mall Road for traffic. The vehicles of the fire brigade and personnel of Rescue 1122 services also reached the blast site and started rescue activities.

They extinguished the fire and shifted the injured soldiers and civilians to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) and District Headquarters Hospital in Nowshera.

Some of the injured soldiers were identified as Jawad Ali, Haroon, Zeeshan, Jawad Hidayat and Sabeehullah. The injured civilians included Afaq Ahmad, Bashir Khan, Adnan Khan, Abdul Rehman, Ms Tanveer, Ms Noureen Bibi and Ms Rashida.

Station Commander Brigadier Nazir Hussain Khan, Deputy Commissioner Khwaja Sikandar Zeeshan, District Police Officer (DPO) Shehzad Nadeem Bukhari, personnel of the intelligence agencies, Counter Terrorism Department and bomb disposal squad (BDS) also reached the site of the terrorist attack.

Pieces of evidence were collected from the site and while the media and public were denied access there. Sources said that the suicide bomber targeted the convoy when it was returning after executing an unknown task.

DPO Shehzad Nadeem Bukhari said the police lodged the case of the attack under the Anti-Terrorism Act. He said the head of the alleged suicide attacker had been retrieved and dispatched for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test. He informed the media that geoforensics and other evidence was being collected from the blast site.

The DPO said the injured included seven soldiers and seven civilians. He said that a man and two women onboard the civilian vehicle were among those wounded in the incident, adding, search operation was being conducted in the area.

The body parts of the suicide attacker flew into the air and some of his limbs landed over the rooftop of the nearby mosque. The attack took place right in front of the Bara market. At the time the faithful were busy offering Zuhr prayers on the first day of Ramazan. The number of people praying registers an increase during Ramazan.

Later, the law-enforcers including personnel of the bomb disposal unit along with the sniffer dogs carried out the search operation. The GT Road and Mall Road were opened to traffic after two and a half hours of the incident. It was the fifth big terrorist attack in Nowshera, though it took place after a long gap.

In the previous attacks, a suicide bomber had targeted the Army Supply Corps Centre in which several soldiers had been martyred. The suicide attacker had come on a bicycle. In another attack a suicide bomber blew up in a mosque on the GT Road causing several casualties.