Dozens of heavily armed fighters attacked a police station in Pakistan's volatile northwest before dawn on February 5, killing at least 10 police officers and wounding six others who fled, authorities said.
The attack, which comes just three days ahead of general elections scheduled for February 8, was not immediately claimed by any group. Pakistan has seen a growing number of militant attacks over the past several months.
The Chaudwan police station in Daraban, a town in the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province that borders Afghanistan, was attacked by dozens of fighters at around 3 a.m., local police said in a statement.
An hourslong firefight ensued between the security forces and the attackers, who also used grenades, said Daraban deputy police chief Malik Anees ul Hassan, adding that security forces were now searching for the perpetrators.
The attack was the second in two months in the same district, after a suicide car bomb killed at least 23 troops and wounded another 32 outside a police station on December 5.
Following that attack, claimed by a little-known group, Tehrik-e Jihad Pakistan, believed to have ties with the Pakistani Taliban, Pakistani security forces launched several operations, killing dozens of militants across the region, according to the military.
Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Islamic State (IS) and other militant groups have for years attacked security forces and civilians in the border areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Violence has also been on the rise the southwestern province of Balochistan, where four police officers and two civilians were killed late last month by militants from the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a banned Baloch separatist group.
The recent upsurge in violence in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan has prompted security concerns among authorities ahead of the February 8 election, but Pakistan's election commission, after consultations with security officials, said that polls would go ahead as planned.
Central authorities said thousands of army and police will be deployed across Pakistan to ensure the safety of the election.