Bomb disposal official martyred while defusing IED in Peshawar's Hassan Khel, police say

PESHAWAR: A Bomb Disposal Unit official of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police was martyred on Tuesday when an improvised explosive device went off as he was trying to defuse it at an abandoned police post in Peshawar district's Hassan Khel subdivision, police said.

The incident took place at a vacant post in the Faqeeri Banr area of Hassan Khel. Officials said terrorists had already set off one IED inside the post and had left behind another device that had not exploded.

A senior police official said the BDU official, identified as Khaisat Rehman, had travelled from Peshawar to deal with the device. Rehman was attempting to make the second IED safe when it exploded. The area was subsequently sealed off and a search operation was launched, the official added.

The senior police official said:

"It was a vacant post and terrorists had already detonated one IED inside it, but they left another unexploded. A BDU member, Khaisat Rehman, who had travelled from the provincial capital, was attempting to defuse the second IED when it exploded."

Hassan Khel lies around 50 miles south of the provincial capital and, the area has seen an increase in terrorist attacks targeting law enforcement agencies over the past four years.

Earlier this month, on July 1, a woman was killed and six other members of the same family were injured in what sources in the area described as a suspected drone strike in Pastawana, a village in the mountainous part of Hassan Khel subdivision. Those sources said the strike hit a house and initially wounded seven people. The woman later died while being shifted to hospital. The victims were taken to Shamshato Hospital on the border of Peshawar and Nowshera districts, where four of those with minor injuries were later discharged.

Before that, on June 9, six Federal Constabulary personnel were martyred and four others were injured when they responded to an attempt by terrorists to capture a post in the Hassan Khel area. Eight terrorists were killed in the retaliatory action and the attempt to seize the post was foiled.