A terror attack on a police checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan killed at least 11 police officers and 15 attackers, police said on Thursday, days after more than two dozen people were killed in a similar assault.
The overnight attack targeted the Khazina police post in Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the Afghan border.
More than two dozen police officers were wounded in the assault, with some reported to be in critical condition.
Police said the terrorists used heavy weapons to target the checkpoint. Reinforcements dispatched to the scene were ambushed en route, damaging an armoured personnel carrier before security forces repelled the assault.
Provincial police blamed “Fitna al Khawarij” — a term the Pakistani state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — for carrying out the attack. No group immediately claimed responsibility.
The attack came days after terrorists rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a security checkpoint in Tank district, also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing 15 people, including soldiers, police officers and government personnel. Security forces said they killed 12 attackers in the ensuing operation.
Bitter rift
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in terrorist violence in recent years, much of it blamed on the TTP, a separate group but a close ally of Afghanistan's Taliban administration, which returned to power in 2021.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused Afghanistan of providing sanctuary to TTP terrorists, an allegation Kabul denies.
The accusations have fuelled tensions between the neighbours, with Pakistan carrying out air strikes against what it says are terrorist targets inside Afghanistan.
