Gunmen kill a government official and 3 others after vehicle ambush in northwestern Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Suspected militants ambushed a vehicle carrying a government administrator in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, killing him, two of his guards and a passerby, officials said.

The attack took place in the Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said Alam Khan, a local police official. He identified the administrator killed as Shah Wali, who served in Miran Shah near the Afghan border.

The ambush came a day after a suicide bombing near a police vehicle in the northwestern district of Lakki Marwat killed a senior police officer.

No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. The group, which is separate from but aligned with Afghanistan’s Taliban government, has been blamed by authorities for previous attacks.

Pakistan has seen a steady rise in militant violence, which has strained relations with Afghanistan. Islamabad accuses the TTP of operating freely inside Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in 2021, a charge Kabul denies.

Tensions escalated last month after the Taliban government accused Pakistan of carrying out an Oct. 9 drone strike in Kabul. Cross-border clashes followed, killing dozens of soldiers, civilians, and militants before Qatar brokered a cease-fire on Oct. 19. The truce remains in place, though recent talks between the two sides in Istanbul ended without an agreement.