Six cops were injured on Monday when gunmen opened fire at the North Waziristan district police officer’s (DPO) vehicle near Bannu district’s Mamash Khel town, an official said.

Bannu Regional Police Officer (RPO) Sajjad Khan confirmed the details to Dawn, adding that the incident took place on Miranshah road, which connects Bannu and North Waziristan.

“Armed men open fire at the vehicle of North Waziristan’s DPO,” RPO Khan said. “The DPO remained unhurt,” he added.

He further said the injured police personnel were taken to the Bannu District Headquarters Hospital.

“The unidentified attackers have hidden in nearby areas and a search operation is underway [to trace them],” the Bannu RPO said.

Pakistan has witnessed an uptick in terror activities over the past year, especially in KP and Balochistan, after the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) broke its ceasefire with the government in November 2022.

The past few months have seen an escalation in attacks on law enforcement agencies, with police forces in KP being targeted repeatedly.

Yesterday, a station house officer and two other cops were injured in a blast caused by an improvised explosive device (IED) in KP’s Hangu district. Last week, terrorists kidnapped a police official from Bannu’s Havaid Adda area.

Separately, the Bannu police on Friday also claimed to have recovered Constable Noor Zaman, who had been kidnapped by terrorists in North Waziristan’s Mir Ali town. The cop was on his way to attend the last rites of his brother, Constable Javed Khan, who had been martyred in a gun attack in Bannu.

Faced with the heightened militancy, security forces have also intensified counter-terrorism operations in KP and Balochistan.

Militants in Pakistan suffered their heaviest losses in 10 years during the month of October as security forces intensified operations against them, according to a report by the think-tank Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.