Three FC personnel martyred in quadcopter drone attack in Karak

PESHAWAR: Three Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel were martyred and several others wounded in a militant attack involving a quadcopter drone and subsequent gunfire on ambulances in the Karak district o Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Security sources said that the attack targeted an FC fort near Dargah Shaheedan in the Bahadar Khel area, within the limits of Khurram Muhammad Zai Police Station.

District Police Officer Saud Khan said that militants used a quadcopter drone to drop explosives on the fort, wounding five personnel.

He said that as the injured were being transported to hospital, gunmen ambushed the ambulances, opened fire and set the vehicles ablaze, martyring three FC members.

Rescue 1122 staff were also targeted in the attack, the police officer said adding that the wounded victims were shifted to Khalifa Gul Nawaz Hospital in Bannu.

Security forces launched a search operation in the area following the assault and later cleared the vicinity, officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan is suspected to be behind the attack. The banned outfit has stepped up attacks on security forces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other areasin recent months.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant violence since a fragile truce between the government and the TTP collapsed in late 2022.

The group, also referred to by authorities as “Fitna al-Khawarij,” has primarily targeted police and paramilitary forces in the northwest.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, bordering Afghanistan, has long been a hotspot for Islamist militant activity, and security officials have warned of increasingly sophisticated tactics, including the use of improvised explosive devices and small drones.