Ten security personnel were killed and three others injured when militants attacked their checkpost in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, officials said on Friday.

The security personnel were killed when a gunfight erupted following the attack on Thursday at the checkpost in the Daraban area of Dera Ismail Khan district, a police official said.

A contingent of troops rushed to the site immediately after the attack, the official said, adding that troops have launched a massive search operation to arrest the assailants.

Ten security personnel have lost their lives in the attack, another official said.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has been active in the area, with several similar attacks targeting security forces. The Pakistani government has repeatedly accused the TTP of operating from sanctuaries in Afghanistan.

There has been an uptick in the incidents of terrorism in Pakistan since the Taliban took over the government in Kabul in 2021, dashing hopes in Islamabad that a friendly government in Afghanistan would help to tackle militancy.

The TTP was set up as an umbrella group of several militant outfits in 2007. The Pakistani government has officially declared the banned organisation as "Fitna al-Khawarij", a reference to a group in earlier Islamic history which was involved in violence.

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