DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi on Sunday said that more than 1,300 kilogrammes of explosives were used in the recent attack on a Tank checkpost that resulted in the martyrdom of 15 people, including 14 security personnel.

The governor made the remarks while speaking to journalists at the Regional Police Office in Dera Ismail Khan after attending a security briefing on the law and order situation in the region.

DI Khan’s District Police Officer (DPO) Ziauddin Ahmad and Tank DPO Abdul Samad Khan were also present on the occasion.

Kundi described Friday’s attack on the Manji Khel checkpoint in Tank as a tragic incident in which he said personnel of the Pakistan Army, police and the forest department embraced martyrdom in the line of duty.

More than 1,300 kilogrammes of explosives had been used in the attack, he said, adding that it showed the scale and sophistication of the terrorism threat.

The KP governor called for a unified national response to terrorism, saying the federal and provincial governments, security forces and the public must stand together to counter militant threats and ensure lasting peace in the province.

He said Pakistan was confronting both internal and external security challenges and the country’s security forces continued to make sacrifices to protect national sovereignty and to ensure public safety.

He said India was using Afghan territory through terrorist groups to destabilise Pakistan, while claiming that weapons abandoned in Afghanistan by international forces were frequently being used in terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, particularly in KP.

Kundi said the people of the province and the country’s security forces had demonstrated remarkable resilience and that attacks such as the one in Tank could not weaken the morale of either the forces or the public.

“I met the injured personnel, and their courage and determination are commendable,” he said.

The governor said he would convey the recommendations presented by the regional police to the federal government, as well as raise with Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and the provincial government the matter of scaling up compensation and support packages for injured security personnel.

He said the welfare of the families of martyrs and injured personnel was a collective responsibility and assured them of continued support.

Calling for closer coordination between Islamabad and Peshawar, Kundi said the provincial government should work shoulder to shoulder with the federal government in the fight against terrorism.

He stressed the need to intensify intelligence-based operations across KP and said he would discuss the matter with the chief minister.

He reiterated that restoring peace in KP and the wider region remained a national priority, adding that the police were performing their duties with professionalism and determination despite difficult circumstances.

The governor’s statement comes two days after the deadly attack in Tank, in which terrorists attempted to breach a joint police checkpost’s perimeter, according to the military’s media affairs wing. The Inter-Service Public Relations said the attempt, however, was “swiftly and decisively foiled” by security forces, who eliminated 12 terrorists.

It said the attackers then rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the perimeter wall and infrastructure at the checkpost was seriously damaged by the impact of the resulting blast.

It took place as KP continues to face terrorism, with security forces foiling a suicide bombing in South Waziristan district and killing four terrorists, including the suicide bomber, in the latest incident.

A monthly security assessment released in early June by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) said that after two consecutive months of improvement, Pakistan’s security situation deteriorated sharply in May, driven primarily by escalating terrorist violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.