LAKKI MARWAT: At least three people were killed and three others injured when armed attackers opened fire on a group of locals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat district, police said.

The incident took place near Abdul Khel in the jurisdiction of Shaheed Haibat Ali Khan Police Station in Dara Pezu, according to police.

Initial information suggested that the victims were returning to Abdul Khel from Shah Hassan Khel when armed men opened fire on them.

Three people were killed on the spot while three others sustained injuries in the attack.

Police identified the deceased as Umair, Sadiq Amin and Ailiyan, while the injured were identified as Imdadullah, Asifullah and Ijaz Khan.

The attackers fled the scene after the shooting, police said.

The bodies and injured were shifted to the government city hospital, where the injured received medical treatment.

A local resident said a large number of villagers, mostly young men, had travelled to Shah Hassan Khel to watch a cricket match and were returning to Abdul Khel in a rickshaw when the attackers opened fire.

Police said they had launched an investigation and were collecting further information about the incident.

The attack comes amid a fresh wave of violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A day earlier, 12 people were killed and 35 injured in a suspected suicide blast and gunfire at a checkpoint in Dera Ismail Khan.

On September 18, an attack during Friday prayers at the old Police Lines in Kohat left 21 people dead and more than 100 injured.