Via The Nation: Polio escort van bombed in Charsadda. Excerpt:
Six policemen and a boy were killed and eleven others injured on Wednesday when a police van on its way to guard a polio vaccination team was bombed in Charsadda district, forcing the authorities to indefinitely suspend the vaccination drive in the whole district.
Only a day before gunmen had killed on one polio worker in Mansehra and three others in Karachi, prompting the provincial polio workers’ association to declare a halt to their work across Sindh province. Polio drive has also been postponed in Chitral, Haripur, Dera Ismail Khan and Multan over security concerns.
In Charsadda’s incident, a police van carrying 10 policemen was on way to guard polio vaccination teams in Sardheri Bazaar on Mardan-Charsadda road when explosives planted on bicycle parked along the road exploded with a big bang. Charsadda DPO Shafi Ullah Khan said that the bomb was exploded, probably with a remote control device, at around 8:30am.
Hawaldar Khwaja Muhammad Khan, driver Azam Khan, constables Wisal Khan, Kashif, Gul Shah and Ikram Gul and 13-year-old Adnan were killed. Eleven others including four policemen – Haseeb, Bashir Ahmad, Mubarak and Nizar Alli – and civilians Farid, Jameel, Junaid, Zubair Shah, Kamal Ahmad, Wajid Ali and Shah Hussian sustained injuries in the blast.
Windowpanes of some five nearby houses and shops were smashed due to the blast, which is the third one in Charsadda district in last three days. The dead and injured were taken to district headquarters hospital of Charsadda, where emergency was declared. Three seriously injured persons were shifted to Lady Reading Hospital of Peshawar. The funeral prayers of the dead policemen were offered at Bahadar Khan Police Lines. Later the dead bodies were dispatched to their native villages.
Talking to media persons, Mardan Range DIG Syed Wazir said that the police mobile van was on way to a nearby BHU to guard a polio vaccination team, when it was targeted. He said that some four kilograms of explosives were used in the blast. The police chief said that security of polio workers would be ensured at all costs. However, the district administration suspended the polio drive in the district in the wake of the attack.
The report goes on to describe the dead policemen and the boy as "martyred." That does not seem like an exaggeration.
