Three cops wounded in Bajaur roadside bomb blast

BAJAUR: An explosion left at least three policemen wounded after their vehicle was struck by a bomb planted along the road in tehsil Khar of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Bajaur district on Saturday.

A station house officer (SHO) and other police officials remained safe in the incident, said the deputy superintendent of police (DSP). He said a search operation was launched against the suspects in the Bhai Cheena area.

Police said the wounded were taken to the hospital for medical treatment.

The attack comes two days after an explosion at a police station on Thursday night claimed the lives of two people, while several others remained injured in Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

District Police Officer (DPO) Swabi Haroon Rasheed had told reporters that the blast occurred in the police station’s warehouse room on the first floor, where huge quantity of explosive material recovered from the terrorists from time to time was stored.

The nation has been reeling under rising violent attacks since the Taliban rulers returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, particularly in the bordering provinces of KP and Balochistan.

The two most vulnerable provinces saw a sharp rise in deadly attacks last couple of months, according to data from the Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS).

The digital database of security incidents managed by the Islamabad-based think-tank suggested an alarming situation as the number of attacks jumped from 38 in July to 59 in August.

These incidents included 29 attacks in KP, 28 in Balochistan, and two in Punjab. Meanwhile, KP witnessed 25 casualties in the 29 terrorist attacks during August.

To tackle the menace of increasing terrorism in the country, the federal cabinet had approved Operation Azm-e-Istehkam in June this year. The operation is a reinvigorated national counter-terrorism campaign following the Central Apex Committee's recommendations under the National Action Plan to root out terrorism.