Policeman recounts Charsadda attack

CHARSADDA: The suicide bomber was a fair-skinned young man, said Fazal-ur-Rabi, a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa policeman who witnessed the suicide bombing at the gate of a local court in Charsadda on Tuesday.

While speaking to Geo News, he said that he was guarding the court’s gate when he saw two persons coming towards the court. “One of the persons was clad in a chadaar,” he remarked.

“I called him from afar and told him to take off the chadaar as we don’t allow them [chadaars] inside [the court], he recalled.

However, the man kept defying the orders of the police. “When I told him it to take it off two to three times and he didn’t listen, I ordered one of the sipayis to shoot him,” he said.

“As soon as the sipayi pointed his rifle at him, the man blew himself up,” recalls the police officer.

Three suicide bombers stormed the local court in Charsadda opening fire and hurling hand grenades. The terrorists tried to enter the premises of the court.

However, the first detonated his suicide vest near the gate, killing seven people and injuring 20 others, including four policemen. On the other hand, the other two terrorists were killed in a shootout with the police.

The attack is part of the series of back-to-back terror incidents across the nation in which more than a 100 people have been killed so far.