On March 30, a group of heavily armed terrorists had stormed the Manawan Police Academy, located 12 km from the border with India and held some 400 trainees hostage for nearly eight hours before the security forces recaptured the complex. Eight attackers, an equal number of trainees and two civilians were killed in the assault.

Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in retaliation for the repeated drone strikes by the coalition forces in Afghanistan on supposed Taliban and Al Qaeda strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas along its western border.

Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike earlier this month in the South Waziristan region along the border with Afghanistan.