6 personnel martyred as terrorists' bid to capture Frontier Constabulary post in Peshawar foiled: sources

Six Frontier Constabulary (FCN) personnel were martyred and four were injured while responding to an attempt by terrorists to capture a post in Peshawar’s Hassan Khel area on Monday, sources told Dawn. Eight terrorists have also been killed in retaliatory action, and the attempt to capture the post was foiled, according to sources. The sources said that three FCN personnel had been taken hostage by the terrorists. The sources said that security force personnel also reached the site of the incident, and they have cordoned off the area. Last month, the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) said in an assessment that after two consecutive months of improvement, Pakistan’s security situation had deteriorated sharply in May 2026, driven primarily by escalating terrorist violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The country witnessed six suicide attacks during May, including four vehicle-borne suicide bombings. These attacks alone resulted in the deaths of 34 security personnel and nine civilians. On May 9, a suicide attack in Bannu claimed the lives of 15 police personnel, after which Pakistan issued a “strong demarche” to Afghanistan. Over a week later, a prominent tribal elder was among three killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast that struck the busy Rustam Bazaar area of Lower South Waziristan’s Wana. In early June, security forces foiled a terrorist suicide attack on a military post near Miranshah in North Waziristan. As KP and Balochistan continue to grapple with militancy, with attacks often targeting security personnel and law enforcers, the state has intensified counter-terrorism operations. Earlier this month, security forces killed four terrorists in two separate intelligence-based operations (IBOs) in KP’s Dera Ismail Khan and Mohmand districts. In late May, a total of 13 militants were killed in a two-day operation in the Darra Adamkhel area bordering the Kohat and Peshawar districts. About a week before that, a fie