BANNU: Four members of a local peace committee were killed on Tuesday when unidentified gunmen opened fire on them in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district, police said.
According to officials, the victims were returning from a jirga in the Gulbadeen Lundai area when they came under attack. Following the incident, law enforcement personnel shifted the bodies to the District Headquarters Hospital, Bannu, to complete medico-legal formalities.
Police said a search and clearance operation has been launched in the area to apprehend those involved and to ensure the safety of local residents.
The attack comes amid a renewed wave of militant violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A day earlier, at least seven police personnel were martyred after an improvised explosive device (IED) struck their armoured vehicle on Gomal Bazaar Road in Tank district.
The fallen officers were identified as Gomal Bazaar Police Station SHO Ishaq Ahmed Khan, Additional SHO Sher Aslam, driver Abdul Majeed, and Elite Force personnel Arshad Ali, Shaukat Ali, Hazrat Ali, and Ehsanullah. The identity of an additional deceased passerby could not be immediately confirmed.
Bannu has witnessed similar violence in the past. On November 21 last year, seven peace committee members were shot dead by militants in the district’s Hoveed area.
Pakistan has experienced a significant rise in cross-border militant attacks since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021. The border provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have been particularly affected.
Earlier this month, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said law enforcement agencies carried out 75,175 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) across the country in 2025.
Providing details, he said 14,658 IBOs were conducted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 58,778 in Balochistan, and 1,739 in other parts of the country.
According to the ISPR chief, a total of 5,397 terrorist incidents were reported nationwide last year, including 3,811 in KP and 1,557 in Balochistan. He added that 2,597 terrorists were killed during counterterrorism operations, noting that civilians and soft targets were deliberately targeted in major attacks, with Afghan militants involved in all 10 major incidents cited.
