Five Policemen Killed, Several Wounded in Overnight Attacks Across KP

PESHAWAR: It was a long night for police across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. By dawn, five officers were dead, eight others were injured, and a half-dozen districts were left rattled after militants opened fire on multiple checkpoints and police stations.

The worst came in Upper Dir, where a mobile patrol was ambushed. Three policemen didn’t make it home. Six more were hurt before the attackers vanished into the dark hills. Police are combing the area now, though locals say the terrain gives the gunmen an easy escape.

Lower Dir saw two separate firefights—in Maidan and later in Lajbok and Shadas. One officer, Constable Sanaullah, was killed. Another, Sultan Zareen, was wounded. “It all happened so fast,” one official told this reporter, asking not to be named.

In Peshawar, it was a tense few hours. Militants struck at two checkpoints—Matni and Nasir Bagh—and even tried their luck at the Hassan Khel police station. Constable Jahangir Khan was killed in that attack. A colleague was hurt. The other assaults were beaten back before anyone else was lost.

Over in Bannu, police posts in Miryan and Mazanga came under RPG fire. No one was injured—not for lack of trying on the militants’ part. Officers returned fire until the attackers slipped away. Shangla saw similar action later in the night. Same result: no casualties.

KP Police Chief Zulfiqar Hameed said 80 percent of the attacks were foiled outright, blaming the strikes on an attempt to disrupt August 14 celebrations. Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur called the killings “cowardly” and promised the families of the fallen that their sacrifices “will not be forgotten.”

Funeral prayers for Constable Jahangir Khan were held Thursday at Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines. Senior officers stood alongside grieving relatives. In Upper Dir, hundreds turned out to bury the three men killed there.

These weren’t isolated incidents. Since the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan tore up its ceasefire with the government in late 2022, police in KP and Balochistan have been under near-constant fire—roadside bombs, rocket attacks, and, more recently, armed drones. The fight, it seems, is far from over.

Published in Daily Pak, August 14th, 2025