BANNU/KHYBER: Suspected militants abducted three brothers, including two police personnel, after storming a mosque during Taraweeh prayers in Bannu district ate on Wednesday night.

They killed two of them afterward.

In a separate development, a policeman and his son embraced martyrdom in a targeted attack on Wednesday evening in Landi Kotal area of Khyber tribal district.

Witnesses said 10-12 armed assailants entered the mosque, held worshippers hostage and abducted three brothers before fleeing.

Policeman, son martyred in Khyber attack

The abducted persons were identified as Saeed Akhtar, a clerk at the commissioner’s office, and Amjad and Hazratullah from the Wazir subdivision’s police force.

Akhtar was later safely recovered and handed over by Yasir Afridi and local council chairman Masoom Wazir to the local community.

Police said various channels and strategic means were utilised to secure the hostage’s release.

People protesting the kidnapping called off their sit-in and reopened the Bannu Miramshah Road to traffic. The martyrs were laid to rest afterward.

Police said investigations into the incident were ongoing, while action would be taken against those found responsible.

They said that the two abducted police personnel were killed, with their bodies dumped along Marwat Canal Road.

`Council chairman Masoom Wazir said he received information about those bodies and got them immediately taken to the district headquarters hospital.

Bannu RPO Sajjad Khan said the kidnappers were affiliated with a militant group against whom a full-scale operation was under way.

He said the perpetrators would be brought to justice “at all costs”.

The RPO said that terrorist elements previously used mosques as hideouts but police continued to carry out operations against them to ensure protection of places of worship and public life and property.

He said police and other security agencies were jointly conducting search operations at various locations to recover the third abducted individual.

Mr Khan urged the public to report any suspicious activity to law-enforcement agencies immediately.

Meanwhile, funeral prayers for the martyred police personnel were offered with full state honours at the Police Lines in Bannu on Thursday.

RPO Sajjad Khan, Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Faheem Khan, senior police and civil administration officials, along with a large number of police personnel and local residents, attended the funeral.

A guard of honour was presented to the martyrs on the occasion, while special prayers were also offered for them.

Meanwhile, a policeman and his son embraced martyrdom in a targeted attack in Landi Kotalon Wednesday evening.

Police officials said that Safeer Khan along with his 10-year-old son, Talha, were on their way home in the Sultankhel area after performing taraweeh in a nearby mosque when they were attacked by armed men in a busy street.

Both received multiple bullet injuries and were immediately rushed to a hospital. However, Safeer Khan breathed his last before reaching there, while his son succumbed to injuries in the hospital.

Funeral prayers were offered at the Police Lines in Shah Kas area of Jamrud. DPO Waqar Ahmad and other police and security officials showed up.

The two were laid to rest at their ancestral graveyard in Sultankhel area of Landi Kotal.

A little known militant group, Abubakar Karawan, Khyber Marzrinwal, claimed responsibility for the attack through a social media post and vowed to target “more police, one by one”.

Meanwhile, four policemen, who were martyred in a gun attack on their patrol team on Wednesday evening, were laid to rest here on Thursday.

The cops were martyred when the attackers targeted the Ababeel Squad, an exclusive patrolling force, at the time of Iftar near the Nawai Kallay area of Khar tehsil.

The fallen cops, identified as Yarzada, Dawood Khan, Imran Khan and Siraj Khan, were laid to rest in their ancestral graveyards in Khar, Salarzai and Mamund tehsil, respectively, on Wednesday afternoon.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2026