At least a dozen militants were killed and four policemen wounded during Saturday’s clashes between a police peace committee and armed militants in the Barakzai Akhundkhel area of Miryan tehsil in Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), with a retired Federal Constabulary personnel also losing his life in the encounter.
District Police Officer (DPO) Yasir Afridi confirmed to a private media outlet that 12 terrorists had been eliminated, while one individual was martyred and four policemen sustained injuries during the operation.
Bannu Medical Teaching Institution spokesperson Mohammad Nauman Khattab said that the deceased was brought to District Headquarters Hospital where he was identified as a retired Federal Constabulary personnel.
Police sources said that the police party managed to fall back to a nearby police station after holding off the attackers, with additional reinforcements subsequently called into the area. Local sources noted that a large number of militants remained present in Barakzai, keeping the situation tense as firing continued from both sides.
In a separate incident, Bannu police averted what could have been a major tragedy after the bomb disposal squad successfully defused a 10-kgs remote-controlled device planted near Gul Zaman Mosque in Mamash Khel on the Bannu-Miranshah Road.
The clashes come amid a broader resurgence of militancy across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021. Islamabad has repeatedly pressed the Taliban administration to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries on Afghan soil, particularly those used by the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), though officials say those appeals have gone unheeded.
The uptick in violence has been relentless in recent weeks. A day earlier, a policeman was martyred when unidentified gunmen opened fire on him in Khyber district’s Bara tehsil. On May 12, a blast in Lakki Marwat took nine lives and left 33 others wounded. Earlier this week, a tribal chief was among three people killed in an IED blast in Lower South Waziristan’s Wana.
A week ago, police said they had eliminated five targets, among them a TTP commander who was behind the Fateh Khel bombing.
