Peshawar: Unidentified gunmen shot dead three traffic police personnel in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), a police official said on Sunday amid a surge in militant attacks in the province. 

The attack took place in KP’s restive Lakki Marwat district on Sunday at 9:40 am within the jurisdiction of the Sarai Naurang police station, District Police Officer (DPO) Nazir Khan said. 

“The assailants fired indiscriminately at the traffic police [personnel], killing Traffic Police In-charge Jalal Khan and constables Azizullah and Abdullah at the scene,” Khan told Arab News. 

He said a large-scale search operation has been launched in the surrounding rugged terrain to track down the attackers.

KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi strongly condemned the killings, referring to the incident as “deeply tragic.”

He said the sacrifices of the police officers would not go in vain, vowing that such acts would not deter the government’s resolve to battle “terrorism.”

“The police are making frontline sacrifices in the fight against terrorism,” Afridi said, reaffirming his support for the provincial police force.

Pakistan has been grappling with a surge in militant attacks recently. As per statistics released by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) last month, combat-related deaths in 2025 rose 73 percent to 3,387, compared with 1,950 in 2024. 

These deaths included 2,115 militants, 664 security forces personnel, 580 civilians and 28 members of pro-government peace committees (combatants), the think tank said.

Most of the attacks took place in KP’s Pashtun-majority districts and southwestern Balochistan province, the PICSS noted. 

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack in Lakki Marwat. However, similar attacks in the recent past targeting security forces and police personnel have been claimed by the Pakistani Taliban or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group. 

The TTP has carried out some of the deadliest attacks against Pakistani law enforcers since 2008 in its bid to impose its strict brand of Islamic law across the country. 

Islamabad blames Afghanistan’s government for providing sanctuaries to TTP fighters on its soil and facilitating their attacks against Pakistan. The Afghan Taliban deny the charges and say they cannot be held responsible for Pakistan’s security lapses.