6 security men killed in overnight Khyber Pakhtunkhwa attack

KABUL (Pajhwok): Six security personnel have been killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Hangu district during an overnight gun attack on an oil and gas exploration site, officials said on Tuesday.

Media reports said four Frontier Constabulary personnel and two private guards were killed in the attack on a Hungarian-owned oil and gas exploration site.

Dawn.com qouted Thal Deputy Superintendent of Police Irfan Khan as saying that terrorists opened indiscriminate firing at the security personnel posted at MOL Pakistan Oil and Gas Company’s plant at the location of Mainji Khel late last night.

“The soldiers bravely exchanged fire for two hours. Four personnel of the Frontier Constabulary and two from a private security company have been martyred in this attack,” he added.

Khan further said the terrorists were able to flee by taking advantage of the darkness at night time and that the bodies of the soldiers have been shifted to Thal Combined Military Hospital.

Reuters quoted Khan as saying that the attack on the gas plant involved up to 50 terrorists, who targeted two wells — M-8 and M-10 — with heavy weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades.

AFP quoted district police chief Asif Bahadur as saying, “They (the terrorists) were armed with light and heavy weapons and fired mortar shells, killing six security personnel at the main entrance” of the site.

According to AFP, Bahadur blamed the attack on the militant outfit Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), though no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

He added the attackers came from the nearby North Waziristan district, which borders Afghanistan and has historically been a hive of militancy.

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