Khassadars, police trade fire over arrest of car-lifter

PESHAWAR: Due to lack of coordination between the district administration Khyber and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police, khassadars and cops exchanged fire at the Karkhano checkpost on Saturday over the arrest of a car lifter.

The main Torkham-Peshawar road remained closed for quite some time after khassadars and police took positions against each other. No casualty, however, was reported in the incident.

The Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP-Operations) Javed Iqbal Khan told reporters that police were chasing a car stolen from Islamabad when they were informed the lifter was at the Karkhano checkpost. He added that the ASP Hayatabad talked to the relevant assistant political agent who gave a go-ahead.

Officials said when the police went there to arrest the car-lifter, the khassadar force opened fire on the police.

There were reports that some of the police officials were also taken into custody who were released later.

The exchange of fire between the two forces continued for some time, resulting into the blockade of the Torkham Road.

The embarrassing incident of clash between two local forces has not happened for the first time.

There were a number of occasions in the past in which the forces in the erstwhile tribal areas clashed with the local police for the fault of one or the other.

Four injured in Lakki explosion: Four persons were wounded when an explosion, believed to have been caused by gas leakage, demolished a house in Dall Mills locality near Lakki city Saturday morning.

The explosion was heard in the locality and it destroyed the house located along busy Tajazai-Darra Tang portion of Bannu-Mianwali road,” an eyewitness said.

The owner of the house had left for Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj, leaving behind two relatives to guard the house. The explosion did not cause any damage to surrounding houses.

The wounded men with burn injuries were shifted to Government City Hospital. They were identified as Waqar Habib, Naushad, Shafiullah and Muhammad. One of them, Waqar Habib, was later referred to Peshawar in critical condition.

Lakki DSP Ashraf Khan said that two passers-by were among the wounded men. He said that police were investigating the incident and it was too early to speculate the cause of the explosion.

Another official wishing not to be named said it was apparently a gas leakage explosion. The experts of bomb disposal squad visited the place and collected evidences.

A large contingent of police also rushed to the site of explosion and surrounded the area. Security was beefed up after the explosion and police started searching individuals and vehicles on Tajazai-Darra Tang road.