By Staff Reporter
PESHAWAR: Five people, including two paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) personnel and two Excise Department officials, were killed in separate militant attacks in Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, while three militants were gunned down in an intelligence-based operation, Dawn newspaper reported on Saturday.
In an overnight ambush in Regi Lalma, on the outskirts of the provincial capital Peshawar, Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) officials said their SWAT team intercepted a group of militants affiliated with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The operation, conducted late Thursday, was based on technical surveillance tracking a cell linked to 18 attacks on police and civilians across Peshawar’s borders with Mohmand, Kohat, Khyber, and Nowshera districts.
The CTD said the militants, planning an attack on the Peshawar-Khyber border, opened indiscriminate fire when confronted. In the ensuing clash, three militants were killed, while four others escaped. One of the slain militants was identified as Abdullah, alias Jawad, an Afghan national, confirmed through a recovered citizenship card. The identities of the other two are under investigation.
“Preliminary intelligence confirms the militants were part of a banned TTP-linked cell operating under foreign-based, foreign-funded handlers, with active plans to escalate attacks on security forces, public infrastructure, and pro-state individuals,” CTD officials told Dawn.
In a separate incident in Lakki Marwat, two FC personnel and a civilian were killed when three armed men attacked an FC official and his brother, Ihdadullah, on the Indus Highway in the Wanda Karim Khan area. The attack occurred as the pair, returning home from a hotel, were ambushed with assault rifles.
“We were injured and fell to the ground while the assailants fled,” Ihsanullah told police before succumbing to his injuries. He said his brother, who had returned to the village on leave a week earlier, died en route to the hospital.
Police said the second FC official’s body was removed from the scene by relatives. A case was registered at Shaheed Haibat Ali Khan police station in Darra Pezu, with an investigation underway to trace the attackers.
In Dera Ismail Khan, two Excise Department officials were killed and a hotel owner injured in another attack on Friday. Police said Assistant Sub-Inspector Syed Ali Shah and volunteer Abideen, son of Amir Muhammad Banuchi, were targeted by two unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle near Hashim Hotel on the Dera-Daraban bypass.
The officials, who had stopped for breakfast while on duty, were killed instantly. The hotel owner, Hashim, 47, from Bhakkar, was wounded. Police described the incident as a terrorist act, part of a recent surge in targeted attacks on law enforcement in the region. The area was cordoned off, and a search operation was launched to apprehend the assailants.
The attacks underscore the persistent security challenges in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where militant groups like the TTP have intensified operations, targeting security forces and civilians in coordinated assaults.
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