Lakki Marwat: At least five policemen, including an officer, were injured in an explosion in the Shahbazkhel town of Lakki Marwat district in Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police said on Tuesday morning. Police spokesperson Qudratullah confirmed that the attack was carried out by Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP) rebels on the Bannu-Dera Ismail Khan section of the Peshawar-Karachi Indus Highway, according to a Dawn report.
The Federal government has issued a directive that TTP is not to be called by this name and is nowadays referred to as Fitna e Khwarij. This was after the government banned TTP. Earlier, the TTP were loosely called “Bad Taliban’’ but the Afghan Taliban, including the Haqqani group that Pakistan itself promoted, were considered “Good Taliban’’.
(Of late, both groups have trained their guns against Pakistani security forces and created mayhem in the country. So much so that Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had attacked Afghanistan in the recent past, leading to a significant escalation in the hostilities with its western neighbour. These days, delegations of Pakistan and Afghanistan are in China discussing ways to de-escalate.)
The police spokesperson said that TTP men had fitted an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) to a motorcycle parked along the roadside, which later exploded with a loud bang. The official added that a police patrol from Shahbazkhel police station was the target of the blast.
He said “the explosion was heard throughout the area and left one assistant sub-inspector (ASI) and four constables injured”, adding that the police van they were patrolling in was also damaged in the blast. The official elaborated that the injured cops were moved to the District Headquarters Hospital after the attack for medical treatment.
“After the blast, a large police contingent reached the town, surrounded the area and launched a search for the perpetrators of the attack,” he added.
Lakki Marwat District Police Officer (DPO) Nazir Khan, along with personnel from Counter-Terrorism Department and Bomb Disposal Squad, inspected the blast site. The DPO issued instructions to subordinate officials to beef up security and trace and arrest the perpetrators of the terrorist attack.
Over the past few months, several areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including Bannu, Peshawar, Karak, Lakki Marwat and Bajaur, have witnessed a series of attacks on police forces. KP has seen a rise in terror attacks in the past year, according to the Annual Security Report 2025. The report said that fatalities rose from 1,620 in 2024 to 2,331 in 2025.
Meanwhile, a couple of days ago, a suicide car bomb attack was carried out at the Domel Police Station in Bannu, killing at least five civilians, while 13 others were injured, including one policeman. Among the deceased were four members of the family. The explosion occurred when an explosives-laden vehicle rammed into the rear side of the police station, triggering a massive blast followed by an exchange of gunfire.
The intensity of the explosion was so powerful that it was heard miles away. The blast completely destroyed the sentry post of the police station, while a large portion of an adjoining building was reduced to rubble.
The explosion also caused severe damage to nearby residential areas, with multiple houses collapsing and several people trapped under the debris. According to Rescue 1122, the injured were immediately shifted to nearby hospitals, where some are reported to be in critical condition.
District Emergency Officer Bakhtullah Wazir confirmed that five people died and 13 were injured and were shifted to hospitals, including one police officer. He added that search and rescue operations are ongoing and will continue until the area is fully cleared. After the firing stopped, rescue personnel initiated a full-scale operation to remove debris and recover those trapped.
