A police officer was killed and two other officers were wounded in a terrorist attack on Saturday in the Kohat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Kohat Regional Police Officer (RPO) Abbas Majeed Marwat stated that terrorists carried out a “cowardly attack” on police personnel in the Lachi area, which resulted in the martyrdom of Inspector Ashfaq and injuries to two others. In a retaliatory response, three terrorists were also neutralized.
Police and law enforcement agencies in the province have long been dealing with a surge in terrorist attacks. Earlier this month, a terrorist attack on a checkpoint in the Bannu district of KP left one police officer dead and three militants killed. According to police, the terrorists had attacked the Fateh Khel checkpoint with heavy weapons, leading to an exchange of fire between the police and the militants.
Since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021, Pakistan has experienced a rise in cross-border terror incidents, particularly in the bordering provinces of KP and Balochistan. A report by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), an Islamabad-based think tank, revealed that the country saw 78 terrorist attacks in June, which resulted in at least 100 deaths. The fatalities included 53 security personnel, 39 civilians, six militants, and two members of local peace committees. A total of 189 people were injured, including 126 members of the security forces and 63 civilians. In total, the violence and operations in June led to 175 deaths, with 55 security personnel, 77 militants, 41 civilians, and two peace committee members among them.
