Islamabad, Jan 4 (IANS) Four police personnel were killed in two separate firing incidents in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday, local media reported citing the police.
Three police personnel were killed after unidentified assailants riding a motorcycle opened fire on traffic police personnel in Lakki Marwat’s Sarai Naurang city, according to police spokesperson, Pakistan-based Geo News reported. Following the incident, the attackers fled from the spot.
The deceased have been identified as Traffic Police In-charge Naurang Jalal Khan, Constable Azizullah, and Constable Abdullah. Police has initiated a search operation in the area and have started a probe.
Meanwhile, a police personnel was killed after unidentified gunmen opened fire in Mandan area of Bannu. Police said Constable Rashid Khan was targeted while he was heading to Mandan Police Station for duty from his home.
The latest incidents come in a series of attacks targeting police personnel in Pakistan, especially in the bordering provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
On Saturday, at least one person was killed and three others, including two police personnel, were injured during a attack on a police post in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The attack took place at around 2 am at the police post in Barang tehsil of Bajaur district, Pakistan’s leading daily Dawn reported, citing police and local residents.
Speaking to Dawn, Israr Khan, spokesperson for the district police, revealed that the deceased was identified as 60-year-old Naseem Gul, a local resident. He added that the injured included two police personnel, Constable Suliman Khan (35) and Constable Saz Muhammad (58), and Sahibzada (28), a school watchman. Khan further said the militants carried out the attack using both heavy and light weapons.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed its deep concerns over the security and law and order situation in the country’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province throughout 2025. The region remains alarmingly unstable, witnessing frequent militant attacks.
Citing Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, the HRCP in its latest report titled ‘Caught in the Crossfire: Civilians, Security and the Crisis of Justice in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Merged Districts’ stated that at least 82 militant attacks had occurred nationwide in July 2025 alone, with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including its former tribal districts, accounting for nearly two thirds of this number. Additionally, 45 militant attacks were recorded in the province in September 2025, killing 54 people and injuring 49.
Of these cumulative figures in September, the province’s merged districts “accounted for 20 militant attacks claiming 21 lives” including six Pakistani security personnel, three militants and 12 civilians and injuring seven.
According to the HRCP, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the President of the Awami National Party (ANP) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, described the security situation as significantly more precarious than generally perceived. He stated that a range of militant organisations were operating not only in the merged districts but also in settled areas of the province, adding that the terrorist outfit Daesh was reportedly active in the region.
Similarly, the rights body said, the provincial president of the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), Sikandar Sherpao, claimed that “approximately 550 incidents of violence had occurred since January 2025, predominantly in the merged districts”. Citing Sherpao, the rights body stated that while “actual militant actors” were operating in the region, they were now accompanied by “copycat groups and hardened criminal networks, compounding the law-and-order challenges”.
–IANS
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