Frequent grenade attacks trigger concerns

PESHAWAR: An increase in recent grenade attacks has triggered concerns among the residents as well as the law enforcers in the provincial metropolis.

The prime target of the grenade attacks remained the police force.

However, explosives were also lobbed inside houses allegedly by the extortionists, and in some cases by the rivals.

On Monday night, a hand grenade was lobbed into the office of Superintendent of Police (SP) Saddar on Kohat Road that did not go off. The explosive was defused by the bomb disposal experts.

The office is located on the main highway and the place wears a deserted look after the evening. On the same day, a hand grenade was thrown at the police post in Shahabkhel within the limits of Badaber Police Station. The blast damaged a portion of the post but did not cause any human loss.

On the same Monday, a hand grenade was lobbed into the house of a resident in Phase-III area of posh Hayatabad Town.

There was no casualty but the blast damaged some parts of the house. Police claimed the owner had some dispute with rivals.

In the recent few months, the attacks with hand grenades have recorded an increase.

Grenades were hurled at the Phandu and Badaber police stations, a police post in Industrial Estate Hayatabad as well as on police patrolling car in Badaber.

Six policemen were injured in a grenade attack on the Phandu Police Station and patrolling car at Badaber Police Station. No casualty was reported in other incidents. The security for sensitive buildings including the offices of the police force has been upgraded after these recent attacks.

Police have been one of the prime targets in Peshawar and other districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, especially southern districts in the last many months.

Apart from hand grenades, the cops, as well as personnel of other law enforcement agencies, have come under attacks with improvised explosive devices, ambushed by armed men or fallen victim to target-killings in different districts in the last few months.

Two personnel of the Excise Department lost lives in a target killing incident in Dera Ismail Khan on Monday. This southern district is witnessing an increase in attacks on police and other law-enforcement agencies for the last many months.

In Peshawar, houses were attacked with hand grenades in Hayatabad, Al-Haram Town and Badaber in the last almost a week. In most cases, hand grenades are lobbed into homes by the extortionists after the failure of the owners to pay the money.

There are reports that a large number of people receive calls for extortion from unknown cellular phones. In many cases, the extortionists call the well-off people on WhatsApp numbers which are relatively hard to be traced, the source said.

The callers also use Afghan numbers to call the locals. Those who approach the police are referred to the Counter-Terrorism Department after lodging roznamcha at the relevant police stations. According to police, there were incidents in which hand grenades were hurled over enmities and not by the extortionists.