By Staff Reporter
LAKKI MARWAT: Terrorists detonated an improvised explosive device under a police patrol vehicle on Friday in the volatile Bettani subdivision of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing seven officers including a station house officer in the latest blow to security forces struggling to contain a surge in militant violence along the Afghan border.
The squad from the Shadikhel police station was on routine patrol along the Shahdikhel-Mastikhel road when the blast tore through the vehicle, according to Qudratullah, spokesman for the district police chief. Six officers — the station house officer and five constables — died instantly. A seventh policeman was rushed to Insaafuddin Hospital but succumbed to his injuries there, bringing the toll to seven. The bodies were transported to a local hospital as a large police contingent sealed the area and began a search for the attackers.
The strike came on the same day that the Counter-Terrorism Department conducted a separate intelligence-based operation in the Shagai area, within the jurisdiction of the Gambila police station, also in Lakki Marwat district. According to a press release from the CTD, the team moved in on reported terrorist activity when the suspects opened fire. A gunbattle lasting about 40 minutes ensued, after which security forces found six terrorists dead at the scene.
The slain militants have yet to be identified, the CTD said, adding that authorities would move against their facilitators and associates once names are confirmed. Recovered from the site were four Kalashnikov rifles with magazines and ammunition, two 9mm pistols, eight hand grenades and one improvised explosive device.
President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the police attack in a statement from the presidency, offering prayers for the slain officers and condolences to their families. He wished a swift recovery to the injured and reaffirmed the state’s “unwavering” commitment to stamping out terrorism.Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi paid tribute to the dead, calling them “the brave soldiers of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police” who “sacrificed their lives today for the nation’s peaceful tomorrow.” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif echoed the sentiment, declaring in a statement that “we will never let sacrifices of police personnel and security forces go in vain. We are determined to completely eradicate terrorism from the country.”
The twin developments in Lakki Marwat underscore the precarious security situation across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where fatalities jumped from 1,620 in 2024 to 2,331 last year, according to the Centre for Research and Security Studies’ Annual Security Report 2025. That absolute increase of 711 deaths accounted for more than 82 percent of the national rise and represented nearly a 44 percent year-on-year surge in provincial violence.
The pattern has grown stark. Last month alone, nine police personnel, including a deputy superintendent, were killed in separate attacks in Punjab’s Bhakkar district and in Kohat and Wana in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Days before that, three Federal Constabulary members died in Karak.
Pakistani officials attribute the escalation to the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan in 2021, which they say has emboldened Pakistani Taliban militants and other groups to use Afghan territory as a staging ground for cross-border attacks — accusations Kabul denies. Islamabad has responded with stepped-up operations, including “Operation Ghazab lil-Haq,” in which authorities say they have killed at least 641 Afghan Taliban fighters, wounded 855, destroyed 243 checkposts, captured 42 militants and eliminated 219 tanks, armored vehicles and artillery pieces, according to Information Minister Attaullah Tarar.
Earlier airstrikes targeted seven camps and hideouts in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar, Paktika and Khost provinces belonging to groups Pakistan identifies as Fitna al Khawarij and the Islamic State Khorasan branch, killing more than 80 militants. Border clashes in October 2025 left more than 200 Taliban-linked fighters and 23 Pakistani soldiers dead. Despite repeated diplomatic efforts, the two neighbours have failed to reach any agreement, largely because of what Pakistan calls the Afghan Taliban regime’s unwillingness to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries.
The Lakki Marwat bombing also followed reports of an attempted drone strike by Afghan Taliban forces in nearby Kohat, officials said, highlighting the persistent frontier dimension of the conflict.
Seven police officers killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa IED blast as counterterrorism raid slays six militants same day
IED blast claims seven policemen’s lives in Pakistan’s northwest while security forces kill six terrorists in same restive district
Surge in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa violence claims seven police as CTD operation in Lakki Marwat eliminates six militants
Twin strikes in Lakki Marwat: Police patrol bombed, killing seven, while counterterrorism forces gun down six attackers
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