A police officer was killed in the firing by armed militants in Mardan, the second-largest city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
The incident happened at Takhtbhai Circle, where the police station Sarui Shah patrolling police team was fired upon by armed motorcycle-riding persons.
Three motorcycle-riding red-armed gunmen shot at a patrolling party at Sarui Shah police station near the river.
Head constable Farooq Khan was killed in the shooting and head constable Majid was injured. One of the accused was killed in the retaliatory fire of the police, and his identification is still to be done. The funeral of the deceased police officer has been performed at the police lines.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
This is not the first such attack. Twelve days ago, there was a shootout between the police and militants in the Katlang area of Mardan, in which a terrorist was killed.
On July 9th, Mardan Police said that DSP Farooq Zaman of Katlang area was on patrol duty at night, when his car was shot at and he was injured.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police has disclosed that in the first six months of this year, 144 policemen were killed in various terror-linked incidents while on duty in the province,whereas as many as 158 terrorists and other suspects were killed and 434 were arrested in the same period.
The Independent Research Institute of Conflict and Security Affairs in Islamabad said in a report that in the first six months of this year, armed attacks in Pakistan have increased by 87 percent and terrorist incidents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have increased by 108 percent.
According to the report, in the first six months of this year 2023, 389 people were killed and 656 were injured in 271 armed attacks in the entire Pakistan.
According to the PICS report, this year’s armed attacks have increased by 87 percent compared to last year.