Two police personnel were martyred and four others injured on Thursday when an improvised explosive device struck an armoured personnel carrier near Kari Malang on the Hathala–Galoti Road, officials said.
Police said an unidentified terrorist detonated the roadside bomb as an APC from the Takwara police post passed through the area. Constable Saifur Rehman and Ramzan, the APC driver, were killed in the explosion.
The injured were identified as Mehmood Alam, Asif Rehman, Kifayat, and Shahid, an FC havaldar. They were shifted to a nearby hospital.
Security forces later cordoned off the area and launched a search operation.
The blast occurred near Takwara village in the Hathala area, around 35 kilometres from Dera Ismail Khan and about 10 kilometres from Kulachi tehsil, on the route leading to South Waziristan.
The locality, which also houses the Hathala police station, is considered a no-go area, where police routinely patrol in armoured vehicles due to security threats.
The attack was carried out using a locally made, high-intensity IED weighing between 8 and 10 kilograms.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Muhammad Sohail Afridi has strongly condemned the IED blast targeting a police vehicle in Dera Ismail Khan, calling the incident “extremely regrettable and condemnable”.
Afridi said the perpetrators would be brought to justice and stressed that such cowardly attacks could not break the resolve of the provincial government or its security forces.
“The fight against terrorism will continue with even greater determination,” he added, paying tribute to the sacrifices of the martyred police personnel.
The Chief Minister affirmed that all available resources would be deployed to ensure peace and the complete elimination of terrorism, and said the provincial government stands firmly with the police and law enforcement agencies in maintaining law and order.
The Inspector General of Police, K-P, has been asked to submit an immediate report on the incident.
