The main highway connecting Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces was closed following a suicide attack at the Dajil checkpost near the Dera Darya Khan bridge in the Bhakkar district. The attack occurred when a suicide bomber detonated explosives near the checkpost close to the bridge linking Dera Ismail Khan with Punjab. CCTV footage reportedly captured the attacker approaching the checkpost before the blast.
Two police personnel lost their lives in the explosion, with four others sustaining injuries and receiving treatment at the District Headquarters Hospital. Security measures were heightened in Dera Ismail Khan and the Bhakkar district after the incident. The road near the Dera Darya Khan bridge was sealed off, and all traffic was suspended as a precautionary step while a search operation was initiated in the surrounding areas, causing inconvenience to commuters.
In a separate incident on Tuesday, unidentified assailants targeted a police vehicle in the Kohat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, resulting in the deaths of seven individuals, including six police personnel. Among the deceased were the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), an inspector, and four constables who were on their way to a court appearance. One of the two individuals being transported was also killed, and the attackers set the vehicle ablaze post-attack.
Moreover, three Federal Constabulary (FC) personnel were killed in an ambush on an ambulance transporting injured personnel in the Badrakhail area of Karak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The injured FC men, who were victims of a quadcopter attack on an FC post, were being taken to a hospital when the ambush occurred. Five FC men and two rescue personnel sustained injuries during the quadcopter attack and ambulance ambush, prompting a search and rescue operation by the police to apprehend the attackers.
The surge in terrorist activities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan has been notable since the termination of the ceasefire agreement between the government and the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) in 2022.
