Pakistan: 7 killed in militant attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu

At least seven people were killed and several others were injured after some unidentified gunmen attacked the office of a local peace committee in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan, said officials on Friday. The attack happened on late Thursday night, they said, adding that the gunmen used automatic weapons and heavier munitions.

According to officials, the gunmen attacked the peace committee’s office in the Dara Dariz area of the Bannu district, targeting its chief Qari Jaleel. No terror group has claimed the responsibility for the attack, but the Pakistani security forces have cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to trace the assailants.

23 Taliban militants neutralised in northwest Pakistan

Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is one of the worst-hit regions by terrorism. According to a local media report in October, the overall violence in the country surged by 46 per cent in the third quarter of 2025. The Pakistani military has intensified its operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, targeting terror hideouts in the region, though. 

On Thursday, Pakistani officials said at least 23 Taliban militants were neutralised in two separate engagements in northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan. In a statement, they said the Pakistani military neutralised 12 militants belonging to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) during the conduct of the operation in Kurram district in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The operations conducted on the reported presence of militants in the Kurram district were an expansion of operations started on Wednesday. Based on the intel, another operation was conducted in the same area, neutralising 11 other TTP militants. “Capitalising on intelligence with respect to the presence of another group of khwarij, in the same general area, in another intelligence-based operation, the troops successfully neutralised eleven more khwarij,” the statement added.