Security forces foiled a major terrorist attack on the police training school in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan after a six-hour joint operation. The attack left seven police personnel martyrs and 13 wounded, while at least five terrorists, including a suicide bomber, were killed, Express news reported.
The attack began around 1 p.m. 20:30 on Friday in the Ratta Kulachi area when heavily armed terrorists tried to storm the training facility. The attackers drove an explosive truck into the main gate, causing part of the border wall to collapse and kill a police officer on duty.
After the explosion, terrorists dressed in mixed uniforms into the premises and opened arbitrary fire, Khorasan Dairy reported
“The area has been cleared and further search and approval operations are underway,” said DPO SaHibzada Sajjad Ahmad.
According to police officers, the operation was jointly performed by police, CTD and other security agencies. 13 wounded staff were moved to the trauma center at DHQ Hospital, where they receive treatment.
Khorasan Diary’s Monitoring Team reported that the striker had body cameras and vibrant streamed parts of the attack. Originally, Tehreek-E-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) assumed responsibility, but later refused involvement.
Read: DG ISPR accuses KP except for terror wave
Muhammad Imran Khan, Director General of Public Relations (DGPR) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, said about 200 police recruits and officers present at the training facility at the time of the attack was surely evacuated. “All blocks of the school and the Nadra office have been cleared,” he said.
During surgery, security forces regained suicide vests, grenades, explosives and other ammunition from the site. One of the attackers was reportedly a suicide bomber.
A day earlier, DG ISPR LT Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry held a press conference in Peshawar to tackle the deteriorating security situation and rising terrorist activity over Pakistan.
He said the country’s terrorist campaign campaign has been intensified, with more than 10,000 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) performed in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa this year alone, resulting in elimination of nearly 1,000 militants.
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DG ISPR warned that the growing involvement of Afghan nationals in terrorist incidents has further complicated Pakistan’s security landscape. “Afghanistan is used as a base to perform terrorism in Pakistan,” he said, calling on the Taliban government to ensure that its land is not used against Pakistan.
He noted that many militants who were active in KP had connections to Afghanistan and used abandoned US weapons left behind after the withdrawal of 2021.
LT Gen Chaudhry accused the control failure and the poor enforcement of National Action Plan (NAP) for the resurgence of terrorism. “The vacuum of poor governance is filled by the martyr’s blood,” he said, emphasizing that effective implementation of naps and improved governance in KP was crucial to defeating militantity.
