Four security personnel were also martyred during the engagement, they added.
The sources said terrorists from Fitna-al-Khawarij — the state-designated term for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — attacked the camp with explosives on Thursday night and tried to end the camp from one of the gates while firing.
But, security forces responded timely and effectively, as a result of which they remained unsuccessful in their nefarious designs, the sources added.
They said that according to initial reports, nine terrorists had been killed and four soldiers were martyred during the engagement.
The terrorists were unable to enter the camp despite using explosives and resorting to intense firing, they said, adding that a search and clearance operation was under way at the camp.
Meanwhile, injured security personnel had been taken to Peshawar for medical treatment, they said.The TTP claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement.
The attack has taken place just three days after a blast in KP’s Lakki Marwat claimed the lives of nine people, including two traffic policemen. Over 30 people were also injured in the attack.
Prior to that, 15 police personnel were martyred after a suicide attack on the Fateh Khel police post in KP’s Bannu district on May 9.
KP has seen a rise in terrorist attacks in the past year. According to the Annual Security Report 2025 from the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), KP recorded a significant surge in violence last year as “fatalities rose from 1,620 in 2024 to 2,331 in 2025”.
An attack on a security compound in northwest Pakistan has killed several paramilitary officers, with the Afghan-based Pakistan Taliban (TTP) claiming responsibility.
An armed group rammed a vehicle filled with explosives into the Bajaur district camp’s gate on Thursday and then launched a gun battle, security sources said. It was the latest in a string of deadly incidents in the border region that threaten the fragile ceasefire between Islamabad and Kabul.
The vehicle triggered a “huge explosion,” one Pakistani official told Reuters news agency. The fighters then rushed the camp and opened “indiscriminate fire”.
Reports say that eight or nine Pakistani soldiers were killed in the attack. At least 10 of the attackers were killed, the AFP news agency reported, while about 35 security personnel were wounded.
A Reuters journalist in the town of Bajaur said the blast was felt at markets more than 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the compound. Images showed that most of the outpost’s structures had been destroyed or charred by flames.
Pakistani military troops reportedly shut down nearby roads and surrounded the compound, which is located on the mountainous border with Afghanistan.
The Pakistan Taliban (TTP), which seeks to overthrow the Pakistani government via attacks launched from its base in the remote border area of Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The latest attack adds to several other assaults in the same region, which have killed more than 20 people in recent days.
A car bomb killed more than a dozen as it targeted a police post, while at least nine people were killed in an explosion at a market.
Three security personnel were wounded in Bajaur’s Inayat Killi area when a mortar shell landed inside another camp, officials told AFP.
Islamabad claims Afghanistan is harbouring the armed groups that carry out attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul denies the accusation, with tension between the South Asian neighbours surging since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021.
From February, this friction escalated into cross-border clashes between the two countries, and then into what Pakistan’s defence minister declared was “open war“.
A pause was agreed to in March, but sporadic violence broke out again. Islamabad and Kabul agreed last month to avoid escalation in China-brokered discussions.
However, the talks have not resulted in a formal agreement or ceasefire, leaving the situation volatile. The series of attacks over recent days threatens to ignite further hostilities between the two states.
The cross-border conflict has killed at least 372 Afghan civilians and injured nearly 400 others in the first three months of 2026 alone, the United Nations said earlier this week.