PESHAWAR – Security forces have killed the alleged mastermind behind the July 30 attack on a police checkpost in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Hangu district that left nine police officials dead, according to security sources.
The suspect, identified as Amir Mauviya, was killed during an intelligence-based operation in Chapri Naryab area of Hangu, the sources said on Sunday.
They said the slain militant held a key position within the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which the state refers to as Fitna al-Khawarij, and was wanted in several terrorism cases.
Security sources added that counterterrorism operations under Operation 11 Garaj had been intensified to eliminate militants.
The July 30 attack on the Khazina Banda police checkpost claimed the lives of nine police personnel, including a deputy superintendent of police (DSP), and left 28 others injured. Authorities said the militants launched an assault on the checkpost, triggering a gun battle in which 15 attackers were killed in retaliatory action.
In a separate incident on Sunday, two police personnel sustained minor injuries when an improvised explosive device (IED) targeted a police van near Pir Zakorhi Bridge, close to the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway toll plaza.
Earlier, on July 29, a police officer was killed and four militants were neutralised during a security operation in Matta tehsil of Swat.
The operation came days after a terrorist attack on a joint police checkpost in Tank district killed 15 people, including 12 soldiers, two police officers and one government official. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), security forces foiled an attempted breach of the checkpost, killing 12 militants before one attacker rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the perimeter wall, causing extensive damage.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has witnessed a surge in militant violence in recent months.
According to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), security personnel deaths in terrorism-related incidents in KP’s settled districts rose from 12 in June to 38 in July, while militant deaths increased from 37 to 108. Civilian fatalities, however, fell from 26 to seven during the same period. In the province’s merged districts, security personnel deaths increased from six to 11, civilian deaths rose from seven to 13, while militant deaths declined from 72 to 55, the report said.
