A police officer was martyred and three terrorists killed during a shootout in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kohat district on Saturday.
Kohat Regional Police Officer (RPO) Abbas Majeed Marwat said that the terrorists carried out a cowardly attack on the police personnel in Lachi area of Kohat, adding that the attack left one police officer, Inspector Ashfaq, martyred and two others injured.
In retaliatory fire, three terrorists were also neutralised, he added.
Police and law enforcement agencies in the province have long been facing a surge in terrorist attacks. Earlier this month, a terrorist attack on a checkpost in KP’s Bannu district left one police personnel martyred and three militants dead.
According to police, the terrorists had attacked the Fateh Khel checkpost with heavy weapons, after which an exchange of fire took place between the police personnel and the terrorists.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in cross-border terror incidents since Taliban rulers returned to Afghanistan in 2021, particularly in the bordering provinces of KP and Balochistan.
According to a report released by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), an Islamabad-based think tank, the country witnessed 78 terrorist attacks during the month of June, which resulted in at least 100 deaths.
Among the fatalities were 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.
Altogether, the violence and operations led to 175 deaths in June — among them, 55 security personnel, 77 militants, 41 civilians, and two peace committee members.
