PESHAWAR: Two police personnel sustained minor injuries in an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion targeting a police van near Pir Zakori Bridge near the Peshawar-Islamabad motorway toll plaza on Sunday afternoon, police said.

According to the police, the driver of a police van and a constable sustained minor injuries, while the vehicle itself sustained damage.

“Both the cops have been shifted to the hospital,” the city police spokesperson Alam Khan told Dawn.

The bomb disposal unit (BDU) reached the scene shortly after the incident was reported.

“It was a roadside IED explosion, and the bomb was planted in the green belt [next to the vehicle],” Peshawar Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Farhan Khan told Dawn.

He said the BDU was busy scanning the green belt for other devices, adding that both cops were stable and had only scratches on their bodies.

Peshawar Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Dr Mian Saeed Ahmed also visited the blast site and later met the injured at the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, who were identified as constables Haider Ali and Yousaf, according to a separate police statement.

The incident comes days after nine cops, including a deputy superintendent of police (DSP), were martyred and 28 others were injured in a terrorist attack on a checkpost in Hangu district.

On July 29, a policeman and four members of a village defence committee were martyred, while six terrorists were killed during a joint security operation in the mountainous areas of Swat’s Kabal and Matta tehsils.

According to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies’ (PICSS) monthly security assessment, at least 112 security personnel lost their lives during July in terrorist attacks, the highest monthly toll since January 2023 and the second-highest recorded in more than a decade.

KP, excluding the merged districts, recorded 154 deaths in July, up from 75 in June, an increase of 105pc. The number of people injured rose from 60 to 98. Security personnel deaths in mainland KP increased from 12 to 38, while terrorist deaths rose by 192pc, from 37 to 108.