Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police thwarted a late-night attack on the Pezu police station in Lakki Marwat district, an official said on Tuesday.

According to District Police Officer (DPO) Tariq Habib, policemen at the Gandi Chowk checkpost suspected the “presence and movement of six terrorists” around midnight and confronted them.

The DPO said that the policemen were already alert and “forced the terrorists to flee”, adding that all officials remained safe.

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A heavy police contingent and an armed personal carrier (APC) reached the site of the incident, the official added.

DPO Habib appreciated the policemen for thwarting the attack, terming Lakki Marwat police a “professional and courageous force that has always fulfilled its role on the frontline in tough circumstances”.

“The KP police is ready for every kind of situation,” he asserted.

The DPO further said that KP Inspector General Akhtar Hayat Khan had decided to hand out certificates and reward the police officials who responded to the attack.

Pakistan has witnessed an uptick in terrorist activities in recent months, especially in KP and Balochistan, after the banned militant Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan ended its ceasefire with the government in November 2022.

According to an annual security report issued by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), Pakistan witnessed 1,524 violence-related fatalities and 1,463 injuries from 789 terror attacks and counter-terror operations in 2023 — marking a record six-year high.

KP and Balochistan provinces were the primary centres of violence, accounting for over 90 per cent of all fatalities and 84pc of attacks, including incidents of terrorism and security forces operations.

A day ago, the premises of Government Model High School in Balochistan’s Kharan was targeted by unknown men during a training session for polling staff. Fortunately, government officials and election commission staff conducting the training remained unharmed.

Last week, four militants, including a “high-value terrorist”, were killed in two separate operations in KP’s North Waziristan and Dera Ismail Khan districts. Days before that, two Pakistan Army soldiers were martyred in an exchange of fire with terrorists in Lakki Marwat.