LAKKI MARWAT: Three Federal Constabulary men were martyred in a terrorist attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Karak district on Monday, according to officials.

In a statement, Karak police spokesperson Shaukat Khan said terrorists initially carried out a quadcopter attack on the Federal Constabulary fort in the Dargah Shaheedan area.

The spokesperson said that during the initial attack, the terrorists detonated four rounds of explosives, causing injuries to four Federal Constabulary personnel. However, the Federal Constabulary personnel retaliated.

The exchange of fire went on for a long time, he added. He said that Rescue 1122 teams arrived at the site of the incident to rush the injured to a nearby hospital; however, the ambulances were ambushed by the terrorists near Ghole Banda Dam, leading to the martyrdom of three Federal Constabulary personnel.

Three Rescue 1122 officials were left injured, he said. He added that following the attack, the ambulances caught fire and were destroyed.

Karak District Police Officer Saood Khan also confirmed that three Federal Constabulary men were martyred as the ambulance carrying the injured came under attack.

Separately, Rescue 1122 spokesperson Asif Khan, in a statement, said that two of the injured rescue personnel were in critical condition.

Meanwhile, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari condemned the attack, terming it “cowardly and inhumane,” as per a statement issued by the PPP’s media cell.

“Those who opened fire on an ambulance have proven that they reject the teachings of Islam,” Bilawal was quoted as saying.

Bilawal, as per the statement, paid tribute to the martyred personnel and offered condolences to their families.

He stressed that “a Muslim cannot even think of harming an animal, let alone a human being, in the holy month of Ramazan”.

Last week, a terrorist attack, involving an explosive-laden vehicle, on a checkpost in KP’s Bajaur district martyred 11 security personnel.

On February 18, two Federal Constabulary personnel were injured when unidentified assailants attacked a checkpost in the Salgazi area of Wazir subdivision.

In November last year, in a major attack on the force, three Federal Constabulary personnel were martyred in a suicide attack on the force’s headquarters in Peshawar’s Saddar area.

KP has seen a rise in terrorist attacks in the past year. According to the Annual Security Report 2025 from the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), KP recorded a significant surge in violence last year as “fatalities rose from 1,620 in 2024 to 2,331 in 2025”.

This marked an “absolute increase of 711 deaths, accounting for over 82 per cent of the net national rise and marking almost a 44pc year-on-year surge in violence in the province”.