Law enforcers foiled an attack by terrorists at a police station in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district on Sunday, police said.

Police said in a statement that terrorists belonging to Fitna-al-Khawarij — a term the state uses for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — tried to attack the Baka Khel police station from a distance.

However, it added, police personnel opened fire on them after detecting their movement using the “latest technology”. As a result, the statement said, the terrorists couldn’t come near the police station and fled.

According to police, “residents from nearby areas also fired at the attackers” and helped law enforcers.

The statement did not mention any loss of lives or property in the incident, which was earlier confirmed by Bannu Regional Police Officer (RPO) Sajjad Khan. He told Dawn.com that the attackers had used a hand grenade to target the police station.

“Unidentified attackers threw a hand grenade toward the police station, but it fell at a distance, causing no damage,” he said.

The RPO added that the attackers fled after the attempt and a search operation to hunt them was under way.

Pakistan has lately been witnessing an uptick in terrorist activities, mainly in KP and Balochistan. In November 2022, the TTP, after breaking a ceasefire deal with the government, had vowed to escalate attacks against the security forces, the police, and other law enforcement agencies’ personnel.

On Friday night, police intercepted an explosive-laden rickshaw in the Bannu district, killing three terrorists and foiling a potential suicide attack on a police post in Mazanga in the jurisdiction of the Havaid police station.

On Saturday, unkn­own assailants launched a rocket and gun attack on the Azam Warsak police station in South Waziristan’s

According to police, the attackers targeted the police station from multiple directions, but the police and the FC personnel responded swiftly, forcing the assailants to flee. No casualties were reported in the incident.