Two cops were martyred and four were injured when a police van was targeted with a bomb in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan, an official said.

DI Khan District Police Officer (DPO) Sajjad Ahmad Sahibzada confirmed the casualties to Dawn.

He said that a “remotely controlled bomb was detonated when an armoured police vehicle of the Takwara checkpost was patrolling on the Hathala-Giloti road as per its routine”.

“As a result, Driver Ramzan and Constable Saifur Rehman lost their lives. Hawaldar Shahid and constables Mehboob Alam, Asif and Kifayat were injured.”

The incident comes just over a week after a bomb attack in DI Khan’s Daraban tehsil injured at least 14 security personnel when an improvised explosive device (IED) damaged a security forces vehicle.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in terror activities in the past year, especially in KP and Balochistan, after the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) ended its ceasefire with the government in November 2022 and vowed to attack security forces, police, and law enforcement agencies’ personnel.

In response, security agencies have also ramped up counter-terrorism operations.

In DI Khan alone, one terrorist was eliminated in an intelligence-based operation (IBO) this week, and 10 others were killed in the district’s Kulachi area over the weekend.

Over a span of five days, from November 15 to November 19, security forces killed 45 terrorists in separate IBOs conducted in KP’s DI Khan, Bannu, Bajaur, North Waziristan, Mohmand, Lakki Marwat and Tank districts.