Three police officers were gunned down by terrorists in Nowshera district’s Akora Khattak on Saturday, according to police and rescue officials.

“Three policemen died in the attack,” Nowshera police spokesman Durrani told Dawn.com, saying that the assailants targeted a police van.

He said that a police party reached the crime scene soon after the attack, cordoned off the area and initiated a search operation.

Durrani said the search operation was ongoing while the police were also gathering details of the incident and assailants.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police identified the officers as Head Constable Manzoor, Constable Amanullah and Constable Ayaz.

A Rescue 1122 statement said medical teams moved the bodies to District Headquarters Hospital Nowshera.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan took notice of the incident and summoned an incident report from the police chief.

“The incident is very tragic and the sacrifice of the martyrs will not go in vain,” the chief minister said. He also prayed for the deceased and extended his condolences to their families.

The incident comes after a suicide attack targeting a police truck in Balochistan’s Baleli area on Wednesday in which four peo­­ple were killed and 24 others injured.

A suicide bomber travelling in a rickshaw targeted the truck carrying a police contingent for the security of polio workers, who were administering vaccines during an ongoing campaign in Kuchlak and other areas of Quetta district.

The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan had claimed responsibility for the incident and confirmed it was a suicide attack. The attack had happened a couple of days after the militant group called off its ceasefire with the government and asked its combatants to carry out attacks across the country.