PESHAWAR: At least five security personnel were martyred in an attack on security forces vehicles going for rescue operation after an attack on an aid convoy in Lower Kurram.
The security forces were going for a rescue operation after an aid convoy travelling towards Parachinar in Lower Kurram was attacked.
As security forces moved in for a rescue operation, assailants opened fire on their vehicles. The attack martyred Lance Naik Qabil Khan, Lance Naik Abdul Rehman, Lance Naik Yasin, Sepoy Saqlain, and Sepoy Danish.
The injured include Havaldar Azeem, Naik Tauseef, Naik Niaz Muhammad, and Lance Naik Haroon. Attackers also torched three security vehicles.
Yesterday, the gunman had attacked an aid convoy carrying relief supplies to Kurram district
A driver was killed and three others suffered injuries.
It is the third aid convoy attacked in Kurram in the past two months.
Responding to the attack, the paramilitary forces launched counter-fire from a helicopter against the elements involved in the looting.
Assistant Commissioner Syed Ihsan Ali Shah said that none of the vehicles out of the 113 vehicles that departed from Thal have returned so far. He said that currently, 17 to 18 vehicles in Thal have been halted.
In January, an aid convoy en route to the area came under attack in which Deputy Commissioner Javed Ullah Mehsud of the district along with four others was wounded. As a result, the convoy was stalled.
The second aid convoy was hit by a rocket followed by firing days after the first incident killing two security personnel and three drivers. The attack was the second such attack on an aid convoy en route to Kurram.
The latest attack took place days after authorities reached a peace deal between two warring sides and conducted operations to demolish bunkers in Lower Kurram on the directives of the provincial government.
Kurram, a district of around 600,000 people, has been rocked by tribal clashes since Nov. 21 when gunmen attacked a convoy of passengers that left at least 52 people including women dead.
The deadly attack sparked further violence and a blockade of a main road connecting Kurram’s main town of Parachinar with Peshawar. The blockade caused medicine, food and fuel shortages in the area.
The warring tribes in Kurram have finally signed a 14-point peace deal during the grand jirga in Kohat aimed at ensuring peace and ending the 86-day-long road blockade of the restive region.
The incident occurred days after rival tribes in the Lower Kurram agreed to restore peace and end the 86-day-long road blockade of the restive region.
The jirga members including 45 people from each side have signed the peace accord, agreeing that decisions taken during the provincial APEX Committee meeting chaired by Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur will be implemented in letter and spirit.
Under the peace deal reached after several rounds of talks, the rival tribes agreed to surrender their weapons to the state within 15 days and dismantle local bunkers within a month.
