Two policemen were killed and four others sustained injuries in militant attacks on census teams in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s southern districts of Tank and Lakki Marwat on Monday.
In Tank’s Kot Azam area, terrorists opened fire at a police van deployed for the security of census staff while it was returning from a village. As a result, constable Khan Nawab was killed, while police constables Shah Nawaz and Aslam Khan, Levies official Bismillah, Frontier Constabulary official Abdullah and driver Eid Jan were reported to be injured.
The injured were shifted to DHQ hospital.
Same day in another militant attack on a census team, a Frontier Reserve Police (FRP) police constable was killed in Pirwala area of the Lakki Marwat district when motorcyclists opened fire at the census team.
Meanwhile, a member of the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was gunned down in a joint operation in Dera Ismail Khan, according to police.
Last month, a policeman was killed and four other personnel got injured in a TTP attack on a police van deployed to provide security to the census team in the limits of Daraban Police Station.
The attacks come amid a resurgence of terrorism in the country.
Earlier, a blast in Peshawar mosque inside a police compound claimed the lives of more than 60 people. The TTP claimed responsibility for one of the deadliest blasts in the city. Last month a police station in Peshawar was also targeted, resulting in three deaths. Meanwhile, the day after the deadly Peshawar attack, Punjab police thwarted an attack on a police station in Mianwali.
On February 17th, three militants from the outlawed TTP stormed into Karachi police headquarters, leading to an hour-long operation. During the operation, three militants were killed while two policemen, one Rangers official, and a civilian embraced martyrdom.
According to a report by Reuters, the banned TTP is targeting Pakistan’s military and police while using sophisticated weapons, including weapons from the stock left behind by Western forces when they exited Afghanistan in 2021.
TTP is supported by the Taliban-led Afghan government.
