KARAK, Pakistan — Four police personnel, including a Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) deputy superintendent and a station house officer, were martyred on Thursday in a gunbattle with suspected militants during an intelligence-based operation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Karak district, police said.
The office of the District Police Officer (DPO) Karak identified the martyred personnel as DSP CTD Karak Imranuddin; Afzal Awan, the station house officer (SHO) of Latamber police station; Kazim, the DSP’s gunman; and Amjad, an official of the Bomb Disposal Unit, according to the Pakistan Observer account of the police statement.
What happened in Charpara
According to preliminary police reports, a joint district police and CTD team launched the operation after receiving information that suspected militants were present inside a residential compound in the Jala Charpara area, near Bahadur Khel along the old Bannu Road, in Banda Daud Shah tehsil — within the jurisdiction of Khurram Muhammadzai police station. As the team approached, armed men opened heavy fire, and the operation turned into an intense exchange of fire. Some accounts described the police party as having been ambushed as it moved in.
Police reported that two militants were also killed in the operation. A separate report claimed five militants had been killed; that higher figure has not been confirmed by officials, and none of the slain militants has been identified. Police have given no figure for injured personnel. Reinforcements were dispatched, the area was cordoned off and a search operation was under way, according to the reports.
No claim of responsibility
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and police have not named the attackers, describing them only as suspected militants. A detailed official statement from KP Police was still awaited on Thursday evening, and no information had been released about arrests or funeral arrangements. Zark News will update this story when the police issue their full account.
DSP Imranuddin was a prominent local counter-terrorism officer who had taken a leading part in the search operation after the recent Kohat blast and had received repeated threats, according to Sabah News.
Official reaction
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi condemned the attack and expressed grief over the four martyrdoms, saying the sacrifices of KP Police in the war against terrorism are unforgettable and would not go in vain, and that the nation shares the families’ grief.
The martyrs’ families fall under the provincial police compensation package the governor announced last week, on Oct. 14–16 — before this incident — which raised payments to Rs17 million for martyrs ranked constable to inspector and Rs25 million for officers of DSP and SP rank, alongside higher injury and disability compensation, WE News English reported.
Second deadly attack in the same tehsil in two weeks
Thursday’s gunbattle is the latest in a run of violence against police in Karak’s Banda Daud Shah and Bahadur Khel belt. On Oct. 8, SHO Daud Khan of Banda Daud Shah police station and his gunman Farhad were martyred when gunmen fired on a police patrol in the New Karrapa area of the same tehsil, The Pakistan Times reported; no group claimed that attack either. Around Oct. 15, police defused an improvised explosive device planted on a road at Dargah Shaheedan, in Karak, reportedly intended to target police. A Bahadur Khel check post was also attacked in an earlier incident in which three police personnel were martyred.
The loss of two senior officers in a single engagement — the district’s CTD chief and a station house officer — is a serious blow to law enforcement in the district, which sits along the southern KP corridor where militant activity has resurged. What happens next turns on the search operation now under way and on the detailed police account of how the team came under fire.
Sources: Pakistan Observer (citing the DPO Karak office); Sabah News; BNN Watch; Khushal Pakistan; Al-Bilal; The Pakistan Times; WE News English. Reporting as of Thursday evening, Oct. 22, 2026; casualty details for the militants and any injured personnel remain unconfirmed by officials.
