10 police, 18 militants killed in northwest Pakistan clash

Résumé détaillé

KOHAT: Gunmen attacked police returning from an operation against illegal gold mining in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing 10 officers, while 18 ...

KOHAT: Gunmen attacked police returning from an operation against illegal gold mining in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing 10 officers, while 18 militants were killed in the fighting that followed, police said.

Officers were returning from a mine in the Gumbat area of Kohat district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when militants opened fire on them, provincial police said in a statement, adding that 12 police personnel were wounded. A senior administrative official told AFP that militants set two police vehicles on fire, while two other police vehicles and a private vehicle were missing.

The Pakistani Taliban, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), later claimed responsibility for a series of attacks across the country, including one on a police convoy in Gumbat. In a separate operation in the Orakzai area of Kohat, 10 TTP militants were killed and a large quantity of weapons recovered, another official said.

Security forces are battling intensifying militancy in the border province, which they say originates in Afghanistan, an accusation the Taliban government in Kabul denies. Relations between the neighbors have been tense since the Taliban took power in 2021 and worsened after deadly border clashes in October last year that led to the near-total closure of the border. After a lull following mediation, the conflict intensified again in February, with Pakistan declaring “an open war” on Afghanistan. Hundreds of civilians have been killed in fighting between the two countries since October last year, according to the UN mission in Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa killed two police officers guarding a polio vaccination team near the Afghan border. The province was placed under emergency rule last month, a move authorities said was a response to the provincial government’s failure to tackle militancy.

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