At least 10 police officers, including two senior officials, were killed on Wednesday when militants ambushed a police convoy in Kohat district of Pakistan’s north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
An intense exchange of gunfire between security forces and the attackers was continuing following the ambush, local police official Faisal Khan said, reports AP.
No militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. However, suspicion has fallen on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has intensified attacks on security forces in areas bordering Afghanistan.
Pakistan has witnessed a rise in militant violence in recent years, with much of it attributed to the TTP, an organisation separate from but closely allied with the Afghan Taliban, who returned to power in 2021.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of providing safe havens to TTP militants. Kabul has denied the allegations.
