Locals prevented the abduction of an army official on vacation at the hands of armed militants in Tirah on Saturday.

According to reports, an army official, named Noor Saleem, had returned to his village in Bar Qamber Khel from duty in Balochistan, when armed militants assaulted his home to try to abduct him. The militants fired on his family as well.

However, as word got out of the attack, there were announcements in mosques in the area which prompted armed men from the area to rush to the soldier’s aid.

The locals escorted the soldier to safety and forced the attackers to withdraw from the area.

The people of the area said that they had no association or tolerance for terrorists and said they wanted to live in peace.

The resistance by locals against attacking militants has emerged as a trend in recent weeks. On March 15, locals had helped police fend off an attack on the Khojri check-post in Bannu. Armed militants had lobbed grenades at the check-post which did not cause any casualties. However, the explosions attracted the men of the village who fought off the militants.

Later, residents of Lakki Marwat’s Abbasa Khattak area confronted armed militants near Isha prayers. The worshippers banded together to chase away the militants. A militant attack had been fought off by locals in Karak as well.

According to research by Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), an Islamabad-based think tank, terrorist attacks increased across Pakistan in February and there was a sharp increase in the number of civilian deaths.

There were a total of 79 terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of 55 civilians and 47 security personnel, while 45 civilians and 81 security personnel were injured.