Three police personnel were martyred and at least one terrorist was killed as law enforcers responded to a terrorist attack on a checkpost in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Hangu on Wednesday night, according to an official statement of the provincial Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD).
The statement, issued late last night, said terrorists carried out a “cowardly attack on the Qazi Talab checkpost in the darkness of the night”.
Responding to the attack, Hangu District Police Officer (DPO) Khan Zeb Mohmand led the operation against the terrorists, the statement said, adding that while the operation was under way, police personnel “surrounded the area and stood firm against the enemy like a wall of lead”.
Eventually, police “foiled the attack”. However, three policemen, Head Constable Wahid Shah, Head Constable Hikmat Khan and Abdul Samad, were martyred during the operation.
The CTD statement detailed that “intense fighting” had continued between police and the terrorists during the operation for two hours, and there were reports of several deaths among the terrorists.
“The terrorists took advantage of the darkness of the night and the rocky mountainous terrain and fled, taking their dead and wounded with them. However, the body of an armed terrorist was recovered during the search and strike operation,” the statement said.
Pakistan has seen a rise in terrorist attacks in the recent past, particularly in KP and Balochistan, since the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) ended its ceasefire with the government in 2022. With the end of the ceasefire, the TPP had vowed to attack security forces, police, and personnel of law enforcement agencies.
