Gunmen ambush police convoy in Pakistan, killing eight officers
PESHAWAR: Gunmen attacked a police convoy on its way to an illegal gold mining operation in Pakistan’s northwestern region on Wednesday, killing eight officers, officials said.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Militants ambushed a police convoy en route to an illegal gold mining operation in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Wednesday, resulting in the deaths of eight officers and injuring 13 others, officials reported.
The security official in Kohat district informed AFP that the officers were traveling to the mining site near Gumbat when they came under attack. Militants were responsible for setting fire to two police vehicles, while two other police vehicles and one private vehicle were missing, according to the official.
No militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the ambush, which occurred in a border region where security forces are engaged in a struggle against escalating militancy allegedly originating from Afghanistan. The Taliban government in Afghanistan has denied these allegations.
Earlier on Wednesday, a local emergency service spokesman confirmed that a shooting incident involving police personnel had taken place in Kohat district, with rescue workers treating a dozen wounded officers.
Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been high since the Taliban assumed power in Afghanistan in 2021, and the situation deteriorated following border clashes in October 2022 that led to the near-total closure of the border. The conflict flared up again in February, with Pakistan declaring an "open war" against Afghanistan. The two nations have clashed, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths, according to the United Nations mission in Afghanistan.
Earlier this month, militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa killed two police officers tasked with protecting a polio vaccination team traveling near the Afghan border. The province was placed under emergency rule last month due to concerns about the provincial government's inability to combat militancy effectively. The emergency measures also led to a crackdown on supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, resulting in hundreds of detentions.
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