Seven policemen who were kidnapped from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district a day ago were safely recovered on Tuesday, according to the district police officer (DPO).
Unknown armed men had kidnapped the police officials from the Rocha Check Post earlier on Monday night, in the Wazir subdivision of Bannu district.
Bannu DPO Ziauddin Ahmad told Dawn.com today that all seven personnel were received by the police.
DPO Ahmad added that building pressure through local elders and police search operations helped in the safe and sound recovery of the policemen from the same area they were kidnapped from.
An official had earlier told Dawn that armed militants forcibly entered the checkpost after surrounding it and took the cops deployed there as hostage at gunpoint during the attack.
“They also snatched official rifles from the policemen,” the official had said.
Following the incident, a large police contingent had reached the area and launched a search operation for the recovery of the kidnapped officials in the remote and mountainous terrain.
The Rocha Check Post is located on the border with North Waziristan, in the limits of Otmanzai police station, in Bannu district.
The country has lately witnessed a sharp uptick in the number of attacks targeting security forces, other law enforcement agencies, and security checkpoints, particularly in Balochistan and KP.
On November 15, seven security personnel were martyred and 18 others wounded in a pre-dawn terrorist attack on a check post on a mountain in the Johan area of Kalat in Balochistan.Armed men attacked the Utmanzai Rocha police checkpost in a remote mountainous area of Bannu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, abducting seven police officers along with their weapons.According to police officials, the attack occurred on Monday evening, with the assailants overpowering the officers on duty and shifting them to an undisclosed location. The attackers made off with all kinds of big and small arms and ammunition and supplies they found there.
Sources say that the armed group beseiged the Rocha checkpost in the hilly area of sub-division Wazir on Monday evening. The kidnapped personnel include Salim Khan, Aqeelur Rehman, Abdul Malik, Mewa Khan, Roshaan, Naimatullah, and Shaal Muhammad.
However, four policemen deputed to the checkpost remained safe as they were not present at the time of the attack. Sources say there were around 30 to 40 armed men who attacked the post.
Following the incident, the police have cordoned off the area and initiated a large-scale search operation to recover the hostages and apprehend the attackers.
