Zeenews Bureau
Peshawar: Armed militants on Tuesday dawn attacked a power station in Pakistan’s Peshawar, killing seven and abducting four others.
The militants attacked Budha Beer Shaikh Muhamamdi power station at around 2:30 am, and killed two men at the spot. They took hostage of nine others and killed five more while being pursued by the police, said the local police chief in the area, Granullah Khan.
The five dead bodies were found in the nearby fields and four are still unaccounted for.
Those dead include four government employees of Peshawar Electricity Supply Company (PESCO) and three policemen.
The grid that was attacked is located near Khyber, part of Pakistan`s semiautonomous tribal region bordering Afghanistan, the main sanctuary for the Taliban in the country. It supplies electricity to a large part of Peshawar, and many areas of the city were still without power on Tuesday morning because the station was damaged in the attack.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. But Taliban militants waging a bloody insurgency against the government have staged scores of attacks against security officials, government personnel and civilians.
The Pakistani military has launched dozens of operations against the Taliban in the tribal region, but the militants continue to carry out frequent attacks. The group has also made recent gains in an area of Khyber called the Tirah Valley, which potentially provides them easier access to Peshawar.
There are concerns the militants could step up attacks in the run-up to parliamentary elections on May 11 in an attempt to derail the vote.
With Agency Inputs
