At least six security personnel were martyred in separate attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan on Thursday, officials said.
The incidents came as nearly 128 million people across the country cast their votes amid an internet and cellular outage. Earlier in the day, the interior ministry said the decision to block mobile network services was taken in view of the security situation.
In KP’s Dera Ismail Khan district, four police officials were martyred in an attack on a police patrol. According to local police chief Rauf Qaisrani, bomb blasts and firing targeted a police convoy in the Kulachi area. He added that the area had been cordoned off and further investigation was underway.
In a statement, interim KP Chief Minister Justice (retd) Arshad Hussain Shah condemned the attacks in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan. Media reports said one person was killed in a firing incident in Tank, although no official has commented on the exact number of casualties or the nature of the incident. The chief minister said that such incidents would not deter police from performing their duties, affirming that the nation and the state were standing with the law enforcement agencies. Meanwhile, two Levies and police personnel were martyred in Balochistan’s Kharan. The district’s deputy commissioner, Munir Ahmed Soomro, told the media that the incident occurred when a Levies vehicle hit a landmine enroute to a polling station.
The official said seven security personnel were injured in the incident. Those in critical condition have been moved to Quetta, DC Soomro added.
Meanwhile, National Democratic Movement (NDM) Chairman and former lawmaker Mohsin Dawar wrote a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja regarding the “very serious and concerning security situation in Tappi, North Waziristan in NA-40”. The letter, which was posted on Dawar’s account on X, stated that militants had been issuing threats to locals and the polling staff in the constituency. “Three of our female polling agents very narrowly escaped attacks […] in the morning of the polling day on Feb 8,” he said, claiming that the “Taliban in the area have taken control of the polling stations”.
Dawar further stated that he had written a letter regarding the situation to the district returning officer but said it was “ignored”.
