At least three policemen were killed after terrorists stormed their station in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday, the eve of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit.
Three terrorists involved in the attack were also reportedly killed, unnamed police sources told Reuters while the assault was still underway.
The terrorists stormed the district police headquarters in the garrison city of Bannu and opened fire.
The death toll was expected to rise.
This was the second such attack this year in Bannu bordering the restive North Waziristan district near the border with Afghanistan.
The latest attack was carried out by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, a spokesperson for the terrorist group said on Monday.
Graphic pictures circulating online showed half a dozen dead bodies lying on ground while videos purported to show intense firing and explosions in the area.
A senior police officer, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters that security forces had "pinned down" the attackers, including suicide bombers, in the area.
The terrorists reportedly stormed the Police Lines during the funeral of head constable Shaista Khan, who had been killed in an attack earlier in the day.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif welcomes Chinese Premier Li Qiang upon his arrival to attend Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Islamabad (Reuters)
The attack in Bannu was the latest in a spate of terror strikes in Pakistan ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit on 15 and 16 October.
Terrorists gunned down 21 coal miners and wounded over half a dozen in the restive Balochistan province on Friday. The carnage lasted 30 minutes before the attackers “escaped into the night,” police said, adding that they were armed with hand grenades and rocket launchers.
A few days earlier, on 6 October, a suicide bomber had killed two Chinese workers outside the Karachi airport and injured at least eight Pakistani security officials.
