Suspected militants ambush police vehicle in northwest Pakistan, killing 5 officers

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Suspected militants opened fire on a police vehicle in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, killing five officers before fleeing, officials said, part of a surge in violence in the region bordering Afghanistan.

The attack took place in the Karak district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province while police were on routine patrol near an oil and gas field, said local police chief Noor Wali told The Associated Press. He said the assailants, after killing the officers, poured gasoline on the vehicle and torched it.

A large police contingent cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to track the attackers.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Suhail Afridi condemned the attack. In separate statements, they said the assailants would be brought to justice and expressed condolences to the families of the killed police officers.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, which is separate from but aligned with Afghanistan’s Taliban government and 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 in October after Afghanistan accused Pakistan of an Oct. 9 drone strike in Kabul, followed by cross-border clashes that killed dozens, before a Qatar-brokered cease-fire on Oct. 19. Talks in Istanbul last week ended without agreement.