Police said on Monday that a police constable was martyred in a late-night terrorist attack on a police checkpost in Bara tehsil of Khyber tribal district.

“Constable Nasim Khan stationed at the Al-Hajj checkpost in Bara embraced martyrdom in a terrorist attack,” a tweet by KP police said.

Speaking to Dawn.com, Khyber District Police Officer (DPO) Saleem Abbas Kulachi said that the attack occurred at approximately 2am last night and the perpetrators used “small weapons”.

He said that a search operation had been launched in the surrounding area.

Meanwhile, the funeral prayers of the martyred constable were offered at the Police Lines in Shakas. A large number of officials, including Peshawar Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Mohammad Ijaz Khan and the Khyber DPO, attended the funeral.

Later, the Peshawar CCPO met with the martyred official’s family and said that the constable’s sacrifice would not be in vain. He added that the perpetrators would be traced and punished.

He also pledged to provide every possible assistance to the family of the martyred officer.

The attack comes amid a surge in terrorist activities across the country, especially in KP and Balochistan, since the outlawed militant group Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan ended its ceasefire with the government in November.

In his maiden press briefing in April, ISPR Director General Maj Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said that at least 293 people were martyred and 521 were injured in 436 terrorist incidents over the past year.

In KP, 192 people were martyred in 219 terror activities, while 80 people lost lives in 206 incidents in Balochistan, 14 people in five attacks in Punjab, and seven in six terrorism incidents across Sindh.

He had said that the army and law enforcement agencies carried out 8,269 intelligence-based operations during the previous year in which 1,378 suspected terrorists were apprehended and 157 were killed.

The DG ISPR had also said that overall 137 security personnel were martyred and 117 injured in anti-terror operations in the ongoing year.