Bannu’s District Police Officer (DPO), Saleem Abbas Kulachi, told Dawn.com that the incident took place in the Bacha Khan Chowk area of the district’s Domel tehsil.
“The police constable was on his way to report for duty when unknown armed motorcyclists opened fire on him,” Kulachi said.
The DPO added that the constable, Qadus Khan, was critically injured and was taken to Khaleefa Gul Nawaz (KGN) hospital, where he passed away from his injuries.
Khanzala Quraishi, the spokesperson for the Bannu regional police, told Dawn.com that the constable was the personal guard of the Wazir sub-divisional police officer.
“After the incident, the station house officer of the Domel area went to the crime scene with a team to investigate the incident,” Qureshi said.
DPO Kulachi said that an operation against the ‘terrorists’ was underway in various locations of the district to eliminate the threat from the area.
He added that the funeral for the martyred police constable would be conducted later today.
Pakistan has seen an increase in terrorist activities over the past year, especially in KP and Balochistan, after the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) ended its ceasefire with the government in November 2022 and vowed to target security forces, police, and other law enforcement agencies.
Earlier this month, a police constable was martyred and another was seriously injured in a confrontation with three suspected terrorists at a police post in the Patesi Adda area of Mir Ali Tehsil. This was the third attack on police personnel in the Bannu division that same week.
In August, at least three Frontier Corps personnel and two policemen were martyred in separate incidents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Upper Dir, Kohat, and Mohmand districts.
