Senior official among 4 killed in northwestern Pakistan attack

At least four people, including a senior district government official and two policemen, were killed in a militant attack in northwestern Pakistan, police said Tuesday.

Militants attacked an official vehicle of North Waziristan Assistant Commissioner Shah Wali Khan in the Mamandkhel area on Bannu-Miranshah Road, a police official at the district police control room told Anadolu over the phone.

Khan, along with two police personnel and one civilian, was killed in the attack, the official added.

Later, the militants also set fire to the official vehicle.

Following the attack, police cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to track down the assailants.

On Monday, a policeman was killed and six others were injured in a suicide bombing on security forces in Lakki Marwat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders neighboring Afghanistan.

The bombing took place a day after security forces foiled a suicide bombing and another attack in the Noukandi and Mastung districts of southwestern Balochistan province on Sunday, killing several militants.

Lakki Marwat, along with the adjoining Bannu and North Waziristan tribal districts, has long been witnessing militant attacks as the South Asian country has seen a surge in attacks in recent years.

Pakistan saw an 80% jump in civilian fatalities but a sharp 65% reduction in security forces' losses in terrorist attacks, according to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based think tank.

In its latest monthly report, the think tank said that some 292 people were killed and 164 injured in anti-state violence and security forces' countermeasures across the country during November.