AUTHORITIES in northwestern Pakistan said Thursday that a predawn militant assault on a police outpost and subsequent roadside bomb blast had killed four police officers and wounded six others.
The deadly violence occurred in Lakki Marwat district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.
A provincial police statement said that militants raided a security outpost in the area, injuring six security forces. It added that a nearby police station had quickly dispatched reinforcements to respond to the attack when their vehicle was blown up on the way by an “improvised explosive device.” The ensuing blast killed four officers.
The Pakistani Taliban took responsibility for what it claimed was a coordinated gun and bomb assault. The outlawed group, known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, has intensified attacks, killing hundreds of people in recent months, mostly security forces.The insurgent violence has resurged since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, as all U.S. and NATO troops withdrew from the country after two decades of involvement in the Afghan war.
Pakistan has maintained fugitive TTP leaders operate out of their Afghan bases. Officials say the militants have enjoyed “greater operational freedom” since the Taliban took control of the war-torn country.
