PESHAWAR: Militants killed one policeman and wounded another in an attack on a checkpost in northwestern Pakistan, officials said on Thursday.

The attack took place on the outskirts of Bannu town, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, which has seen several terrorist attacks in the past — many of them targeting security officials.

“A group of up to five militants riding motorbikes attacked the checkpost late Wednesday night, threw hand grenades and later opened fire, killing one policeman and wounding another one,” local police official Noor Wali said.

Senior local police official Iqbal Khan also confirmed the incident.

No one claimed immediate responsibility for the attack, but Taliban militants, who have been waging a bloody insurgency against the state, routinely target police and security forces.

Pakistan is on the frontlines of the US-led war on Al-Qaeda. Since July 2007 it has also been gripped by a local Taliban-led insurgency, concentrated largely in the northwest.

It says more than 40,000 people have been killed in Pakistan by Taliban and Al-Qaeda-led militants, who oppose Islamabad's US alliance.