A series of attacks against Pakistani police by terrorists left five officers dead and eight wounded in the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, officials said.

There were four attacks with three resulting in officer casualties on Thursday, police said.

Most died or were injured in a single attack in the Upper Dir district when armed men ambushed a police van early on Thursday.

Three officers died and seven were injured during the routine patrol, police official Ismail Khan said.

In the Peshawar suburb of Hassan Khel, armed men opened fire on a police station with automatic weapons.

One officer died and another was wounded in an exchange of fire, Peshawar Capital City Police Officer Qasim Ali Khan said.

Two other overnight attacks came at police checkpoints in the Lajbok area of the Lower Dir district, where a police constable was killed, and in the Bannu district, where there were no casualties reported.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a terrorist group in Pakistan, has been fighting against the state since 2007 in a bid to overthrow the government and replace it with its version of Islamic law.

Attacks have accelerated since the TTP revoked a ceasefire with the Pakistani government in late 2022.

In 2024, the terrorist group carried out 335 countrywide attacks, killing 520 people, according to the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, an independent organisation.