Four peace committee members gunned down in Bannu attack

Unidentified assailants shot dead four members of a local peace committee in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district on Tuesday.

The victims were travelling through the Gulbadeen Lundai area while returning from a jirga (tribal council) when they were intercepted and fired upon. The attackers fled the scene immediately after the ambush.

Following the incident, a heavy contingent of police reached the site and shifted the bodies to a local hospital for medico-legal formalities. Security forces have cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to apprehend the perpetrators.

Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has condemned the firing by terrorists on peace committee members in Bannu.

The interior minister expressed deep sorrow over the martyrdom of the four peace committee members and offered his heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the families of the martyrs, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement.

“We will foil every conspiracy aimed at sabotaging the efforts for peace in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” Naqvi stated. He added that the cowardly acts of the Khawarij cannot weaken the nation’s firm resolve against terrorism.

“The nation stands united to defeat the nefarious designs of these elements,” he remarked.

Multiple peace committee members were killed when terrorists opened fire on their office in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district in November 2025.

According to police officials, as quoted by local media, armed militants had ambushed the committee members, triggering an exchange of fire in which several people were killed and one other person injured.

On the other hand, four police personnel, including a traffic police in-charge, were martyred in two separate firing incidents by unidentified terrorists in Bannu and Lakki Marwat districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on January 4.

A Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) annual security report has revealed that with an almost 34% surge in overall violence, 2025 went by as the most violent year for Pakistan in a decade. “The country has suffered a sustained escalation in violence for five consecutive years since 2021, coinciding with the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan; with almost 38% in 2021, over 15% in 2022, 56% in 2023, nearly 67% in 2024, and 34% in 2025,” it said.

2025 marked another grim year for Pakistan’s security landscape, it said, adding that as many as 3417 violence-linked fatalities and 2134 injuries among civilians, security personnel, and outlaws resulted from 1272 incidents of violence — terrorist attacks and counter-terrorism operations.

The comparative data for 2024 and 2025 reveals a sharp escalation in terrorism and counter-terrorism linked violence nationwide, with fatalities rising from 2555 in 2024 to 3417 in 2025, marking an increase of 862 deaths, or a roughly 34% year-on-year surge in violence.

The most significant surge in violence was recorded in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the fatalities rose from 1620 in 2024 to 2331 in 2025, an absolute increase of 711 deaths, accounting for over 82% of the net national rise and marking almost a 44% year-on-year surge in violence in the province.