Dongola, July 16(Darfur 24)
Northern State authorities announced on Wednesday the commencement of investigations into the attack on the Ghadar Police Station in the state, which resulted in the death of a policeman and the injury of others by an unknown armed force.
The Chief Public Prosecutor of the Northern State, Mohamed Farid Hassan, issued a report on the incident, explaining that the attack was motivated by the intent of completely neutralizing the police station and putting it out of service in order to rob the Agricultural Bank adjacent to the police station.
The report indicated that the Agricultural Bank received cash payments for salaries of employees in various sectors, noting that it is the only bank in the area. It indicated that information about the arrival of the funds on the afternoon of the incident was almost readily available to residents of the area.
He added that “the perpetrators of the attack had access to the police station’s location, including the location of personal weapons, the location of the station’s vehicle, and the location of the station’s personnel sleeping quarters. This is evidenced by the fact that they immediately received the weapons, disabled the vehicle, and injured all personnel, causing leg injuries.” He continued, “Given the geography of the police station’s location, the attackers must have been locals. Otherwise, it would have been difficult for them to reach the police station and carry out the attack with such precision and speed, given the lack of electricity. They were certainly aware of this.”
The report noted that police authorities have begun investigations by inspecting the site with specialized technical agencies (forensic evidence, police dogs, detectives, and security police), under the supervision of the state police director and the chief public prosecutor.
The report ruled out the possibility that the attack was carried out by hostile or friendly armed groups. It also ruled out any hostile action other than robbery.
On Tuesday, a police officer was killed and three others were injured, one of them critically, in an attack carried out by unknown gunmen on the Al-Ghadar Police Station in Northern State.
Eyewitnesses and sources in the Northern State, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Darfur 24 earlier that an armed group of four people in a saloon car carried out the attack, firing a “Qarnouf” shell at the station, killing policeman Mohamed Osman Ambash and wounding three others. The station’s vehicle was also set on fire and parts of the administrative offices were damaged.