At least nine people, including four law enforcement personnel, were injured in a blast near Peshawar’s Bani Mara area on Thursday, police said.

Statements issued by Peshawar Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Dr Mian Saeed’s office confirmed these details.

He separately told Dawn.com that police were targeted in the incident. “Initial investigation shows that the device that caused the blast was planted on the route of a police mobile,” he added.

The CCPO added that the condition of one of the injured was serious. Rescue services shifted the injured to a nearby medical facility after the attack.

He said police were investigation whether the the blast was caused by an improvised explosive device or not.

Following the blast, a large contingent of security forces reached the incident site and cordoned off the area.

Separately, the city’s Senior Superintendent of Police Operation Masood Bangash told Dawn.com that law enforcers were investigating the incident and evidence from the site of the blast was being collected.

The blast comes less than two months after two people were killed and 20 others, including policemen, were injured in a bomb blast targeting a police vehicle in the Wana tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lower South Waziristan district.

In another incident in Balochistan in July, three cops were injured in an attack on a highway police vehicle in Balochistan’s Nasirabad District.

Reports on terrorism

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in terrorist attacks, especially in KP and Balochistan, predominantly targeting the police, law enforcement agencies’ personnel, and security forces. Attacks increased after the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) broke a ceasefire agreement with the government in 2022.

Two reports, issued by Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) and the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) yesterday, about militant violence in the country over the past month, stated that the first three quarters of 2025 saw nearly as much violence as witnessed in all of 2024.

According to PICSS, militant violence dropped significantly in Sept 2025, with both the number of attacks and militant capacity showing sharp declines compared to the record levels seen in Aug. The PICSS Militancy Database recorded 69 militant attacks in Sept — a 52 per cent reduction from August’s 143. These attacks resulted in 135 deaths and 173 injuries, whilst militants abducted at least 27 people.

The fatalities included 61 security personnel, 20 militants, and 54 civilians. Amongst the injured were 74 security personnel and 99 civilians. Compared with August, the number of martyred security personnel declined by 16pc, militant fatalities by 66pc, and civilian deaths by 17pc, reflecting a notable decrease in lethality.

KP remained the most affected province, but also witnessed intensified counterterrorism actions. The province reported 45 attacks that killed 54 people and injured 49.

According to CRSS’s report, Pakistan witnessed an over 46pc surge in overall violence in its security landscape for the third quarter of 2025, with at least 901 fatalities and 599 injuries — amongst civilians, security personnel, and outlaws — resulting from 329 incidents of violence.