An improvised explosive device (IED) attack on a police mobile van in the hilly Ghol Banda area of Banda Daud Shah in Karak district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), on Monday resulted in the martyrdom of the driver and injured six other personnel.

District Police Officer (DPO) Muhammad Imran said the police mobile was travelling towards Sar Dargah when an IED planted along the route exploded.

The DPO identified the martyred driver as Wajid, who belonged to the Gadi Khel area of Karak. The injured personnel were identified as Syed Shah, Noor Shali, Imran, Shamim, Gohar and Yasin.

The injured were receiving medical treatment, DPO Imran said. Following the attack, police and security agencies cordoned off the area and began collecting evidence, he added. He further stated efforts were underway to trace and apprehend those responsible for the attack.

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K-P Information and Public Relations Minister Shafi Jan, in a post on X, termed the attack an “extremely regrettable, cowardly, and condemnable act.” Jan added that terrorists would “never succeed in their nefarious objectives through such cowardly acts.”

The minister stated that the “sacrifices of the martyred personenl of K-P police in the war against terrorism will never go in vain,” stressing that the provincial government “shares equally in the grief of the martyr’s family in this hour or sorrow.”

Jan extended prayers for the martyred driver and for the recovery of the injured personnel.

The attack came amid a broader spike in terrorism in Pakistan, particularly in K-P and Balochistan, in recent days. The rise in terrorist activity has led to growing concerns over the security situation in these regions.

K-P has borne the brunt, with 12 terrorists killed across multiple operations in Bannu, North Waziristan, Orakzai and Khyber districts over the span of a few days this month. A substantial cache of explosives, IED detonators, weapons, ammunition and motorcycles was recovered and destroyed during the operations.

On August 6, security forces killed 10 terrorists belonging to the Fitna-Al-Khawarij in two separate engagements in K-P. In the first encounter, a group of khawarij attempted to attack security forces’ check posts in the general area of Azam Warsak in South Waziristan district. Eight of the terrorists were slain during the encounter.

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In a separate incident in Dir district, security forces killed two more khawarij.

In response to the increasing volatility of the region, security forces have been conducting intensive operations in K-P, as well as Balochistan, to counter the threat, targeting terrorist groups and aiming to eliminate Indian proxies Fitna Al Khwarij and Fitna Al Hindustan, preventing attempts to undermine peace and stability in the country.

Fitna al-Hindustan is the term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Balochistan Liberation Army and other groups in Balochistan. Whereas Fitna al-Khawarij is the state-designated term for the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).