In northwest Pakistan on Thursday, Taliban militants opened fire on a truck carrying security officers, leaving at least four policemen—including an officer—dead and six others wounded.
In the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province’s Lakki Marwat area, militants assaulted a police mobile vehicle. According to officials, the incident occurred while the car was being driven to the Saddar police station.
According to them, the assault left six police officers wounded and four police officers dead, including a deputy superintendent of police (DSP). They further said that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa police chief Akhtar Hayat Khan has ordered an investigation into the event.
A spokeswoman for the Lakki Marwat police claimed the assault began early on Thursday and resulted in a firefight between the police and the terrorists.
Six cops were wounded in the gunfire, he said.
According to a police statement, the extremists had sophisticated and powerful weapons, the Dawn daily stated.
The assailants were forced to run when the police opened fire because they were on high alert, it claimed.
Taking advantage of the darkness, the terrorists escaped, it was said.
According to the report, the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) made the attack’s claim in a statement.
The act was condemned by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who also expressed gratitude for the sacrifices made by police officials in the fight against terrorism. He also expressed his wish for the wounded people’s quick recovery.
Shehbaz said in a statement that “the elimination of terrorism is an essential for Pakistan’s existence and prosperity” and added that “police are doing amazing duty against the terrorist as the first line of defense.”
The new assault comes as terrorism-related occurrences have increased in Pakistan over the last several months, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, where terrorist organizations have been carrying out operations with almost complete impunity.
With the November breakdown of the negotiations with the Taliban organization, the TTP has stepped up its assaults, focusing in particular on the police.
84 people were murdered and several more were wounded in a deadly suicide bombing at a mosque near Peshawar Police Lines in January.
The Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based think tank, released statistics showing that January 2023 remained one of the deadliest months since July 2018, with 134 people losing their lives (a 139% increase) and 254 being injured in at least 44 militant attacks across the nation.