PESHAWAR: At least eight terrorists, involved in attacks on Customs officials in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan district, are claimed to have been killed by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD).

The law enforcement agency has claimed that the terrorists — one of which, Jahanzaib, was the most wanted — were killed during an operation conducted in the district.

According to a statement issued by the CTD, the dead terrorists were also involved in attacks on security forces, target killing and extortion.They were, the agency added, present in the district with plans to cause sabotage.

“The escape routes of the terrorists were blocked,” the CTD said, adding that there is a fear of the presence of facilitators of terrorists in the local population.”Strict action is also being taken against the facilitators,” the agency maintained.

Last weekend, two officials of Customs were gunned down in an attack near York Toll Plaza in DI Khan, while four others sustained injuries in the gun attack.This attack came just days after a previous one on April 18, during which six people, including five customs officials, were killed in a firing incident on the Sago Road in Daraban tehsil of the district.

According to the statistics issued by the Department of Interior and Tribal Affairs KP, the areas most affected by terrorism include Peshawar, Khyber, Bajaur, Tank, Dera Ismail Khan, North Waziristan and South Waziristan.

Key findings of the Q1 2024 Security Report issued by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) revealed that KP and Balochistan provinces accounted for over 92% of all fatalities and 86% of attacks in the country including incidents of terrorism and security forces operations.

Individually, KP suffered 51% and Balochistan 41% of all fatalities in Q1, 2024. The data indicates that the remaining regions were relatively peaceful, suffering less than 8% of all fatalities.