PESHAWAR/LAKKI MARWAT: Six terrorists were killed in an exchange of fire with security forces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district, the military’s media wing said.

A statement issued by Inter-Services Public Relations said that the security forces carried out an intelligence-based operation in Bannu on reported presence of terrorists in the area on the night between April 23 and 24.

It said that during the operation, security forces effectively engaged the terrorists’ location and gunned down six of them during an intense exchange of fire. It added that four terrorists sustained injuries in the crossfire.

The military’s media wing also said that sanitisation operation was being conducted to eliminate any other terrorists found in the area, as the security forces were determined to wipe out the menace of terrorism from the country.

Meanwhile, two police officials were injured as an improvised explosive device exploded near a basic health unit in Bannu district on Friday.

A police official said that the blast took place near the BHU in Shakandi area in the limits of the cantonment police station when policemen accompanied by SHO Damsaz Khan alighted from a van and were moving towards the health unit.

He identified the injured cops as Jamshed and Sifatullah, saying that the SHO and other policemen remained unhurt. After the incident, a large police contingent reached the area and launched a search for the perpetrators of the attack.

Regional police officer Imran Shahid along with district police officer Saleem Abbas Kulachi and additional deputy commissioner Aminullah Khan rushed to the District Headquarters Hospital and enquired after the officials.

The RPO asked the doctors to ensure provision of standard healthcare and treatment facilities to the injured policemen.

In Lakki Marwat, police foiled a terrorist attack on Shaheed Asmatullah Khan Khattak police station in the Serai Naurang town on Thursday night.

The police station is located along the GT Road in the urban locality. A police official said that the terrorists used advanced and heavy weapons in a bid to breach the building but the cops deployed there responded effectively.

“The policemen were fully alert as they had noticed the movements of the assailants,” he claimed.

The official said that all the policemen, who took part in the fierce fight, remained safe and forced the attackers to flee. He said that reinforcements backed by armoured personnel carriers and Elite Force commandoes also reached the venue and assisted their colleagues.

Separately, the police destroyed the hideouts of terrorists and their facilitators in the Wanda Amir area of the district.

A police official said that the action was launched on the instructions of DPO Mohammad Jawad Ishaq, who had received credible reports about the presence of terrorists in the rural area.

“During the operation, the law enforcers also seized arms and ammunition from the hideouts,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2025