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.
A senior administrative official in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Kohat district told AFP eight police personnel were killed and 13 others were injured.
Militants set two police vehicles on fire during the assault, while two other police vehicles and one private vehicle were missing, the official said.
He said the officers were travelling to an illegal gold mining operation near Gumbat.
A security official in Peshawar confirmed the toll of eight officers killed.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the shooting in the border province where security forces are battling an intensifying militancy they say emanates from Afghanistan – an accusation its Taliban government denies.
A spokesman for a local emergency service earlier on Wednesday said there had been a “firing incident involving police personnel” in Kohat district, adding that rescue workers were treating a dozen wounded officers.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been fraught since the Taliban authorities took power in 2021, and worsened after deadly border clashes in October last year that led to near-total closure of the border.
Clashes subsided after mediation, but the conflict intensified again in February, with Pakistan declaring “an open war” on its neighbour.
Islamabad accuses Kabul of allowing militants responsible for deadly attacks on Pakistani territory to operate from its soil. Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have denied the allegations.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed in fighting between the two countries since October last year, according to figures from the United Nations’ mission in Afghanistan.
Earlier this month, militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa killed two police officers assigned to protect a polio vaccination team travelling near the Afghan border.
The province was placed under emergency rule last month in a move authorities said came in reaction to the failure by the provincial government to act against militancy.
The imposition of emergency measures sidelined the last remaining bastion of power for jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
The special constitutional measures also set off a province-wide crackdown on Khan’s supporters, with hundreds of detentions.–AFP