At least 10 police personnel were killed and six others injured in a pre-dawn attack on Monday by militants on a police station in northwest Pakistan, police said, as violence escalated ahead of general elections this week.
At around 3:00 am local time (2200 GMT Sunday) militants attacked the police station with sniper fire and then entered the building, said police officers in Pakistan's Draban region in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
"After entering the building, the terrorists used hand grenades which caused more casualties to the police," said Malik Anees ul Hassan, the deputy superintendent of police in Draban.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack and whether it was related to the election.
A national assembly candidate was shot dead on Wednesday elsewhere in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. On the same day, another political leader was shot dead in his party's election office in Balochistan province.
On Tuesday, a bomb attack following an election rally killed four people in Balochistan. IS terror group claimed responsibility.
Draban lies in an area considered a stronghold of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party. The conservative religious party's leader, Maulana Fazal Ur Rehman, travelled last month to Afghanistan to meet the Taliban's supreme spiritual leader, local media reported, one of his few known meetings with foreign dignitaries.
The party has also called for a delay in Pakistan's polls due to security concerns.

Trump touts $5,000 payout if Republicans win as Vance waits in wings
Search expands after Philippine ferry fire kills five and leaves dozens missing
Trump says Iran war to end after US midterm elections
At least 20 killed in cargo vessel fire at China shipyard, state media reports
US military says it struck vessel in Caribbean, killing 3
At least 14 killed in explosion at weapons depot in Syria
US hits five Iranian oil tankers after attack on Navy ships
UK gives air traffic provider a week to probe outage that halted flights
