Around 20 tourists were looted at gunpoint in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Swat on Monday, police officials said, days after two tourist coaches were robbed in separate incidents in the province.

A police official told Dawn.com that the robbery took place in Swat's Bahrain area. "Around 20 tourists from Lahore were travelling to Kalam in a coaster when they were stopped by motorcyclists," he said, adding that the armed men then entered the coaster and looted the tourists.

The robbers managed to escape with Rs400,000 in cash and nine smartphones, the official said.

After the robbery was reported, police reached the area and started an investigation, he further shared.

This is the third such incident reported in the Malakand division in less than a week. On August 6, 40 tourists were looted by armed men in two separate incidents in Kharkanai area of Lower Dir and Thana Bypass Road in Malakand.

Taking notice of the two incidents, the KP chief minister had removed the district police officer in Lower Dir and the Malakand deputy commissioner for failing to control the worsening law and order situation.

So far, police have failed to arrest the people behind the tourists' robbery incidents.

Rs133bn spent over 4 days of Eid

The region has witnessed a major boom in tourism in recent years, with hundreds of thousands of tourists flocking to the mountainous areas despite the pandemic. According to figures released by the KP Tourism Department last month, tourists spent Rs133 billion in the province during the Eidul Azha holidays.

As many as 720,000 vehicles entered the province for tourism over four days, the department said, citing calculations made by deputy commissioners.

"This means in Eid — four days average — Rs27.5bn has gone into economy of local areas (Galiyat, Kumrat, Chitral, Kaghan and Swat)," the department said.