Reporting snapshot · 24 Feb 2026. Casualty figures were still being updated and no militant group had publicly claimed either attack at the time of writing.
What happened
Suspected militants killed at least six police officers and a civilian in two separate attacks on police in Pakistan on Tuesday 24 February 2026. In the deadliest incident, gunmen ambushed a police mobile van on Shakardara Road in the Kohat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing three officers on the spot — among them Deputy Superintendent of Police Asad Mehmood — and wounding others, two of them civilians. Three of the wounded officers and a civilian later died in hospital, bringing the Kohat toll to seven. The attackers set the mobile van on fire before fleeing, police said.
Separately, a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a police post in Bukkur, in the Bhakkar district of eastern Punjab, killing two officers and wounding four others. Police official Shahzad Rafiq said investigators were still working at the scene and gave no further details.
President Asif Ali Zardari condemned both attacks and offered condolences to the families of the dead. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi paid tribute to DSP Mehmood and the other fallen officers, blaming “Fitna al-Khawarij” militants — the Pakistani state’s term for the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — and assuring the government stood with the bereaved families.
Why it matters
The Kohat and Bhakkar attacks continued a sharp rise in militant violence that has followed Pakistan’s airstrikes against militant hideouts inside Afghanistan earlier in the week. Pakistan’s military said on Sunday it had killed at least 70 militants in strikes along the Afghan border targeting TTP and Islamic State Khorasan hideouts in Nangarhar, Paktika and Khost — a campaign that followed an attack on a paramilitary post in Karak, KP, in which a drone loaded with explosives wounded several officers and three more were killed in subsequent ambushes on ambulances carrying the wounded.
The 23 February Karak incident, which the same AP dispatch from Peshawar references, marked one of the deadliest single days for Pakistani security forces in months. Islamabad accuses Kabul of sheltering the TTP, an allegation the Afghan Taliban and the group itself deny, and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has framed the violence as part of an “Indian proxy war” waged jointly by New Delhi, Kabul and the militant outfits. No group had claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attacks at the time of writing.
The escalation has begun to weigh on Pakistan’s markets: the Pakistan Stock Exchange benchmark KSE-100 plunged more than 5,400 points on Monday, its fourth-largest single-session decline on record, with brokers citing “renewed militant attacks on security forces” alongside IMF-review uncertainty as the chief drivers of the sell-off.
What is still uncertain
The final Kohat toll and the identity of the attackers in either incident had not been confirmed at the time of writing. Authorities had not publicly linked Tuesday’s attacks to a specific faction, and the Bhakkar suicide bomber’s background was still being investigated. The Interior Ministry’s use of the term “Fitna al-Khawarij” suggests official suspicion of TTP involvement, but the group had not claimed either strike. Pakistan’s talks with the Afghan Taliban on cross-border militancy remain stalled, and analysts say a further spike in attacks is likely if the diplomatic track continues to falter.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a synthesis of published material, not eyewitness reporting. Sources were reviewed on 24 February 2026.
- Associated Press — "Militants kill 6 officers and a civilian in ambushes on police vehicles in northwest Pakistan"Published 24 Feb 2026 · Casualty figures from Peshawar (Kohat attack), Bhakkar suicide bombing details, President Zardari's condemnation, the broader context of Karak attack on 23 Feb and Sunday's 70-militant strikes along the Afghan border.
- Geo News — "Seven including DSP martyred in attack on police van in Kohat"Published 24 Feb 2026 · Names DSP Asad Mehmood among the dead, locates the attack on Shakardara Road in Kohat, confirms terrorists set the mobile van ablaze, attributes "Fitna al-Khawarij" blame to Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, and provides the wider Islamabad-Kabul cross-border context.
