QUETTA: The heroics of an assistant patrolling officer of the Motorway Police helped mitigate a major terrorist attack in Quetta late Thursday night.
Assistant Patrolling Officer Motorway Police Mohammad Idrees bravely intercepted the suicide attacker’s car outside the Frontier Corps Madadgar Centre.
“Idrees tried to stop the suicide bomber’s vehicle,” said Deputy Inspector General Motorway Police Abdul Haq. “He was martyred when the militants detonated explosives.”
The provincial capital witnessed a major terrorist bid where five suicide bomber, attempting to storm the FC Madadgar Centre, were intercepted and killed by security forces.
The first suicide bomber detonated an explosive-laden vehicle at the entrance while four others tried to enter the centre but were challenged by security personnel manning the gate.
“All five terrorists [were] killed by security forces,” an Inter-Services Public Relation (ISPR) statement said. “All five attackers were apparently Afghans.”
According to the ISPR, four soldiers were also injured in the ensuing exchange of fire and were shifted to the CMH in Quetta for treatment.
The militants mounted the attack in retaliation for the killing of the Balochistan Lashkar-e-Jhanvi chief Salman Badeni, a day earlier, in one of the city’s most secure neighbourhoods near Quetta cantonment. “The failed terrorist attempt was [in] response to [the] killing of [a] key terrorist on Wednesday night in a search operation in the Killi Almas area,” read the ISPR press release.