A police constable was martyred in an attack on a checkpost in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Battagram district on Tuesday.

The KP police said Constable Amjad Hussain was martyred by firing from unknown miscreants while performing his duty at a checkpost in Kas Pul.

A first information report of the incident was registered at the Counter-Terrorism Department police station in Upper Kohistan on the complaint of checkpost in-charge Mohammad Arif under Section 302 (intentional murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code and Sections 6 (terrorism) and 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Arif said that he had gone to the bathroom when he heard the gunshots and as he rushed out, he saw a motorcycle and a car speeding towards the Thakot area.

He said that when he came down to the police checkpoint, Constable Hussain was lying in a pool of blood, adding that other police personnel had also reached the checkpoint. Arif said the body was moved to the District Headquarters Hospital Battagram.

He said the assailants also took away the constable’s gun while fleeing the scene.

Funeral prayers for the constable were offered at the district police line, attended by Hazara Division Regional Police Officer Tahir Ayub Khan, District Police Officer (DPO) Qamar Hayat Khan and others.

The DPO said a search operation was under way in the area to find the culprits.

Separately, the KP police said that Constable Farhad Khan was martyred by firing in the vicinity of Peshawar’s Inqilab police station while on a security detail.

On April 8, a police officer was martyred when unidentified attackers targeted him in the Badaber village on Peshawar’s outskirts.

Police said that assistant sub-inspector Maroof Shah was returning home after offering prayers at a mosque when he was targeted in Sheikh Muhammadi village.

In January, five police officials were martyred and 27 people were injured in a blast near a police van in the Mamund tehsil of KP’s Bajaur district.

The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed responsibility for the attack.