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Pakistani cop killed in bomb attack targeting politician

Pakistani security officials inspect the site of a bomb attack in Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, on April 30, 2015. © AFP

A Pakistani policeman has been killed and two others injured in a bomb attack targeting the convoy of Pakistan’s former interior minister and ex-minister of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The convoy of Aftab Khan Sherpao came under attack while he was returning from an event in the restive province on Thursday, but he survived the assault that left a policeman dead and two others wounded.

“Policemen fired at the bomber when he moved towards the convoy but he blew himself up,” Shafiullah Khan, a district police officer in the town of Charsadda, told AFP.

Izharullah, an official at the local police station, also said those wounded were taken to a government hospital in the area.

There has been no claim of responsibility for Thursday’s attack.

An injured Pakistani policeman lies in an ambulance after a bomb attack in Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, on April 30, 2015. © AFP

“I was the target of this attack. This is the fourth attack on my life. The policemen sacrificed themselves to save me,” Sherpao told AFP following the assault.

The attack comes as the Pakistani army has been engaged in a military operation against militant hideouts in the volatile North Waziristan tribal area since last June, after a deadly raid on the Karachi International Airport ended the government’s faltering peace talks with the pro-Taliban militants.

The operation has so far claimed the lives of over 1,200 militants, according to Pakistan’s army.

Since 2001, when the Pakistani government entered an alliance with the United States in its so-called war on terror, many Pakistanis have lost their lives in bombings and other militant attacks in the country.

SSM/MKA/SS


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