Police killed a wanted commander of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) during an operation in Khyber district, while a separate terrorist attack on a police station in Dera Ismail Khan was foiled following an exchange of fire, police officials said on Thursday. The development came a day after 10 police personnel, including a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) and a sub-inspector, were killed in an attack on a police team in Kohat. Eighteen terrorists were also killed in the exchange of fire after the police team, which was returning from an operation against illegal gold mining in the Gambat area, came under attack. According to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Inspector General of Police Zulfiqar Hameed, police killed a highly wanted commander of the banned TTP, identified as Saifullah, during an operation in the Bara Sheikhhan area of Khyber district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), K-P police, in a statement, said that Saifullah was affiliated with the Fitna Al-Khawarij, and was wanted by the police and the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) in several serious cases. He had been declared a proclaimed offender and had been living in Afghanistan for the past three years to evade arrest. According to CTD records, the slain commander was involved in direct attacks on several security checkpoints in the Maidanak area, as well as improvised explosive device (IED) attacks at Ali Masjid in the Jamrud area. The police statement said Saifullah had recently returned to Pakistan from Afghanistan as the commander of a terrorist formation to carry out attacks. He was killed following an exchange of fire with the police. Two police personnel sustained minor injuries in a grenade attack by the suspected terrorists during the operation. They were provided with first aid, the statement added. IGP Hameed praised the police personnel for killing the wanted commander, saying they had saved hundreds of innocent lives. "The police personnel who killed the Khawarij commander in a successful operation and saved hundreds of innocent lives are an asset to the nation," he said. Hameed added that operations would continue until the country was cleared of the last terrorist. Attack on police foiled in Dera Ismail Khan Meanwhile, police foiled an attack on Band Korai police station in Dera Ismail Khan after armed attackers rammed an explosives-laden pick-up truck into its main gate late on Wednesday night, damaging the station's wall and a mosque, a Dera Ismail Khan police spokesperson said. According to the spokesperson, the attackers used heavy weapons during the assault but were forced to retreat after police personnel mounted an immediate and organised response. Police personnel responded immediately, forcing the attackers to retreat. Despite the powerful explosion and the use of heavy weapons, officers were able to prevent the attackers from entering the station. The spokesperson said the officers' alertness, advance security arrangements and timely response had helped foil the attack. No casualties were reported, and all police personnel deployed at the station remained safe. Read: 10 policemen martyred, 18 terrorists killed in attack on Kohat police team Dera Ismail Khan District Police Officer (DPO) reached the site shortly after receiving information about the attack and reviewed the security arrangements and the situation. K-P has witnessed a series of attacks targeting police personnel in recent months. On October 8, Station House Officer Daud Khan and his gunman, Farhad, were martyred when armed men opened fire on a police patrol near the Karak-Kohat boundary. On September 28, three traffic police personnel were killed when unidentified gunmen attacked their vehicle in Tank district. On September 25, Counter-Terrorism Department Constable Muhammad Afaq was martyred, and three other personnel were injured during an intelligence-based operation against suspected suicide attackers in Peshawar’s Garhi Sherdad area. Read more: Afghan national arrested in Tirah Valley for plotting terrorist attacks in Pakistan: K-P police One of the deadliest recent attacks took place on September 18, when a blast followed by an assault at Kohat Police Lines killed 15 police personnel among 23 people. Eight attackers were killed during the subsequent clearance operation. Terrorism is a growing problem for Pakistan, with the number of attacks rising every year since 2022, according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), a global monitoring organisation. Data from ACLED shows attacks in Pakistan rose nearly fourfold to 2,425 in 2025 from 658 in 2022. The scale of the threat continued to grow in 2026. Two security reports presented to the federal cabinet in October showed that terrorist incidents in K-P had increased by 195 per cent between March 2024 and September 2026. The reports also found that 73 per cent of attacks recorded in the province during 2026 had targeted police and security personnel, while the use of drones and improvised explosive devices had emerged as growing threats.