At least one policeman has been martyred in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Bannu district, police said.

Six people, including two policemen, were injured after the remote-controlled bomb went off near a police van, District Police Officer (DPO) Sadiq Baloch said.

According to the DPO, the bomb was fitted in a motorcycle parked near Kohat Chowrangi and its target was a police van that was on patrol.

The police van and other cars parked in the area were damaged due to the impact of the blast.

Police started a search operation in the area following the incident. No arrests have been made as yet.

Although there has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the city of Peshawar has for decades been a victim of militancy due to its status as a front line for the ongoing war against terrorism as well as its proximity to the tribal areas and the Pak-Afghan border.

The number of attacks in the country has fallen around 70 per cent over the past year, due to a combination of the military offensive against Taliban bases along the Afghan border and government initiatives to tackle militancy, but attacks on security and civilian targets continue to occur occasionally.

The Pakistan Army had launched Operation Raddul Fasaad in February last year following a spate of terror attacks in the country, which claimed more than a hundred lives and left hundreds others injured.

The operation seeks to eliminate the "residual/latent threat of terrorism", consolidating the gains made in other military operations, and further ensuring the security of Pakistan's borders.

Hundreds of suspected terrorists have reportedly either been killed or arrested in raids carried out by security personnel since the start of the operation.