Pakistan(National Times)- KARAK: In a brazen overnight assault, militants attacked a police checkpost in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) Karak district during the early hours of Thursday, killing at least three police personnel and injuring six others, authorities confirmed. The attackers, armed with heavy weapons, launched a barrage of gunfire at the checkpost in the Bahadurkhel area of the city. The deceased have been identified as Taimur, Hayat, Naqeeb and Adnan. Four injured personnel were rushed to the District Headquarters Hospital in Karak. However, three of the wounded have then been shifted to Peshawar due to being in critical condition. The funeral prayer for the martyred policemen will be held at 10am at Karak Police Lines. District Police Officer (DPO) Karak told Geo News that the assailants fled the scene after police retaliated. A heavy police contingent immediately arrived at the site, cordoning off the area and launching a search operation to apprehend the perpetrators. Security measures have been heightened across the area following the incident. The attack came just days after a policeman was shot dead by extremists in Khyber district during an anti-polio campaign. On February 3, an inoculation team was ambushed in the Bakarabad area on the first day of the vaccination drive, highlighting the persistent threat posed by militant groups in the region. In response to escalating security threats, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last month stressed the need to eliminate the “Fitna al-Khawarij,” referring to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has been responsible for numerous attacks on security forces and civilians.