Four policemen, including the in-charge of the police post, were injured on Wednesday when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near a police van in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Buner district, a police official said.

Speaking to Dawn.com, the spokesperson to the Buner district police officer, Israr Ahmad, said, “A police vehicle was on its routine patrol in the Nawagai area, and when it reached the Kankai Chowk, an IED exploded.”

The police official said that the in-charge of the police post at Ambela, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASP), Shahid Zada, Constable Noor Mohammad, who was the driver, Constable Iftikhar Ali, and Constable Altaf Ahmad were injured in the attack.

“The injured policemen have been shifted to a hospital in the area and their condition is stable,” he said.

Ahmed added that following the attack, police began a search operation in the area and the District Police Officer (DPO), Shah Hassan, himself was leading the operation to find the perpetrator who attempted to kill the police personnel.

The incident is the latest in a string of attacks on police officials and checkposts, particularly in KP and Balochistan.

In another incident in Buner in September, unidentified suspects torched a government primary school and detonated an IED as a police team returned from the burnt school in Meragai. No casualties were reported in that incident.

Meanwhile, an attack took place on Monday where five militants wearing burqas and suicide vests were killed as four police officials embraced martyrdom in an attempt to foil a gun and bomb attack on Iqbal Shaheed Police Lines in Bannu.

Pakistan has lately seen a rise in terrorism incidents, particularly in KP and Balochistan. Attacks have escalated after the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) broke a fragile ceasefire agreement with the government in 2022 and vowed to target security forces.