Police Officer Killed in Sniper Attack on Checkpost in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
ISLAMABAD — A police officer was killed Wednesday after unidentified assailants carried out a sniper attack on a police post in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, authorities said.
Assistant Sub-Inspector Daulat Khan was killed when gunmen targeted the Badan police post in Wara Mamond tehsil of Bajaur district, according to local media reports citing police officials.
Following the attack, security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to locate the attackers, the Express Tribune newspaper reported.
The killing comes amid a rise in attacks on security personnel in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in recent weeks.
On Feb. 26, four police officers were killed and two others were injured when unidentified attackers targeted an Ababeel police patrol in the Nawa Kalay area of Khar tehsil in Bajaur. Earlier, on Feb. 14, Additional Station House Officer Gul Mano Din was killed after armed men opened fire on the Wara Mamond police station.
A report released by the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies indicated that combat-related deaths across Pakistan rose sharply in February amid a surge in militant and suicide attacks.
According to the report, 470 people were killed and 333 injured during the month. The fatalities included 96 civilians, 80 members of the security forces and 294 militants. Among the injured were 259 civilians, 50 security personnel and 24 militants.
The data showed a significant increase compared with January, including a 74 percent rise in security force deaths, a 32 percent increase in civilian fatalities and a 21 percent rise in militant deaths.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remained one of the worst-affected regions. During February, 53 security personnel and six civilians were killed in the province, while 35 security personnel and 48 civilians were injured.
Three suicide bombings were reported in the province during the month, killing 17 people — including 14 security personnel — and injuring 20 others.
Elsewhere in the country, a suicide bombing in Islamabad killed 34 people and injured 165, while another attack in Bhakkar district of Punjab province left two police officers dead and four others wounded.
According to the think tank’s data, eight suicide attacks were recorded in Pakistan during January and February this year — nearly half the total number reported in all of 2025, when 17 such incidents occurred.
Overall, the first two months of 2026 saw 831 combat-related deaths across the country, including 536 militants, 169 civilians and 126 members of the security forces, according to the report. (Source: IANS)
