PESHAWAR: At least 15 cops were injured on Thursday as a blast caused by an electrical short circuit ripped through a police station in the northwestern Pakistani district of Swabi, police and Rescue 1122 officials said.
The blast was initially suspected to be a militant attack, which have been on the rise in Pakistan in recent months, with many taking place in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.
Islamabad says fighters mainly associated with the Pakistani Taliban or TTP group frequently launch attacks from hideouts in Afghanistan, targeting police and other security forces. Islamabad has even blamed Kabul’s Afghan Taliban rulers for facilitating anti-Pakistan militants. Kabul denies the charges.
Nearly 80 policemen have been killed in attacks, ambushes and target killings in KP in 2024, according to police data.
“The Swabi police station explosion was not an incident of terrorism,” a spokesperson for local police, Liaqat Khan, told Arab News. “The incident occurred due to an electrical short circuit in the arms warehouse of the police station.”
He added that the building had been “damaged severely,” confirming that 15 policemen were injured.
Bilal Faizi, a spokesperson for the Rescue 1122 service, said at least 15 injured people had been shifted to various hospitals in Swabi, mainly the Bacha Khan Medical Complex.
“The injured include two in critical condition,” Faizi said. “Four room building of the police station has collapsed and a rescue operation is still underway.”
Separately, tribal elders from Kurram, a district in the Kohat Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, held a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club and said fighting between rival tribes had entered a sixth day, with at least 31 people killed and 96 injured.
The clash erupted over a piece of land claimed by both tribes in the Bushehra and Ahmadzai villages of Kurram, which borders Afghanistan. The property dispute soon took a sectarian turn and spread to the whole of Khurram, an area with a history of bloody clashes between Shia and Sunni tribes.
In July, this year, at least 38 persons were killed and more than 150 others injured in a clash that also erupted over a piece of land. In 2007, a sectarian war broke out and lasted until 2011 when the issue was resolved with the intervention of a jirga, or council of tribal elders.
On Thursday, tribal and political elders from Kurram called for an “immediate ceasefire” amid the latest fighting and said the government needed to intervene.
“Several peace jirgas have been held from time to time, but why the peace has not been restored is a question,” a representative from Parachinar, Hassan Raza, told reporters. “We don’t want war in our area but peace in Kurram. The government should immediately intervene and restore peace in the area.”
Deputy Commissioner Kurram Javedullah Mehsud told media the district administration, police and military officials, tribal elders and jirga members were actively engaged in efforts for a ceasefire.
