Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Deputy Speaker Mahmood Jan remained unhurt on Friday as shots were fired near a gathering he was attending in Peshawar's Shagai area, police said.

"Mahmood Jan remained unhurt in the attack," SSP Operations Peshawar Police Kashif Abbasi told Dawn.com. He added that the police were conducting a search operation in the area to arrest the miscreants.

The motive of the attack could not be ascertained as yet, he added.

Dawn.com has reached out to Jan for comment.

Jan was elected to the KP assembly on a general seat in 2018 and went on to become the deputy speaker that same year.

In October, the KP Science and Technology Minister Atif Khan received an extortion letter, allegedly from the TTP. At the time, the terror group denied sending him to letter.

The incident comes amid a spate of terror attacks, many of which were claimed by the TTP.

On Dec 18, captive TTP militants took control of a CTD detention centre in Bannu. Following a three-day stand-off, SSG commandos stormed the compound and cleared it of terrorists. Three commandos were martyred in the operation. A fourth succumbed to his injuries on Thursday.

Also on Dec 18, four policemen were martyred when terrorists attacked a police station in Lakki Marwat — a district of Bannu division.

On Dec 19, an Intelligence Bureau sub-inspector was gunned down in Peshawar, while a suicide attack in North Waziristan claimed the lives of a soldier and two civilians. That same day, back-to-back bombings in Balochistan's Khuzdar injured 20.