Girl killed, two children injured in grenade blast in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: A girl was killed and two children were injured when a hand grenade exploded on a roadside in the Faqirabad area of Peshawar, police said.

Superintendent of Police Hamid Ehsan said the blast occurred in Saeedabad, where children had been playing with the grenade when it went off. He said the grenade’s clip was recovered from the site.

Speaking about the injured, SP Ehsan said:

"The two injured children were taken to the hospital for medical treatment,"

He added that an investigation had been launched to establish how the explosive device reached the area and whether negligence or any criminal involvement contributed to the incident.

Recent violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Earlier the same day, three people were killed and eight others were wounded when a suspected drone hit a residential house in Bajaur district. The strike took place at Pakistan Chowk in the Shinkot area of Mamund tehsil, where the house of Syed Wali Jan, son of Ajab Khan, was struck.

In May, two schoolchildren were killed in a drone strike in the Shah Tangi area of Mamund tehsil in Bajaur district. The origin of the quadcopter and those responsible for that attack remained unknown. In the same month, three people were injured in another drone attack on a cricket ground.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remains a major theatre of the country’s counterterrorism campaign, with security forces regularly carrying out operations against militants. The province saw a marked increase in militant violence last year, with more than 500 attacks recorded, a 50pc rise from the previous year.

According to a security assessment obtained by The Express Tribune, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recorded 1,588 terrorism-related incidents. The assessment said security forces foiled 320 major attacks, while 137 police personnel were killed in the line of duty.

The same assessment said joint operations by the K-P Police, the Counter Terrorism Department and other security agencies led to the arrest of 1,244 suspected militants, while 420 militants were killed in intelligence-based operations. Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Lakki Marwat, Hangu and Peshawar were among the districts hardest hit by militant violence, with a pattern of attacks allegedly planned and launched from across the Afghan border.

The CTD report also recorded a 56pc increase in attacks on police personnel, rising from 327 in 2024 to 510 in 2025. During the year, security agencies conducted 2,791 search operations and identified 25 foreign militant operatives, while extortion networks operating in Peshawar and other districts were dismantled.