Dera Ismail Khan: A policeman was gunned down by unidentified assailants in the Mallah Khel area of Pakistan's Dera Ismail Khan district on Tuesday, the Dawn reported quoting officials.

Head constable Gul Baran died in the attack. The assailants shot Baran while he was on his way back home, police spokesman Syed Yaqoob Bukhari was quoted in the Dawn report as saying.

A heavy police contingent reached the site of the incident and cordoned off the area. A search operation was also launched by the authorities to find the attackers, according to the Dawn report.

Prior to this, two police personnel and a cook were killed in a terrorist attack on a police check-post in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on January 19.

The police station caught fire after terrorists opened fire on the check-post in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Tekhta Beg and used explosive material in the attack, the report said citing local police. Speaking to journalists, Jamrud SHO Shah Khalid called the attack on the police check-post a suicide attack.

He said the suicide bomber entered the checkpost and blew himself up. Khalid said that police opened fire on the target after seeing the bomber.

Two police personnel named Manzoor Shah and Younis Khan were killed in the attack and a cook in the check-post, identified as Rafiq, was taken to the Peshawar hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan took note of the attack on the police checkpost in Tekhta Beg.

In yet another incident three police personnel, including the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), were killed during an exchange of gunfire with terrorists who had launched an attack at a police station in Peshawar. The terrorists had attacked the Sarband police station in Peshawar.

The attack comes at a time Pakistan is witnessing a rise in terrorism, especially by the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and from across the Afghan border.

The terror attacks and activities have been mostly concentrated in Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. Citing Pakistan's Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, the report said 30 per cent of the attacks were reported in Baluchistan last year while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported 67 per cent.