A roadside bomb killed four policemen in Pakistan as they tried to protect a police station under siege by Taliban militants, officials said Thursday. TTP fighters launched an assault early Thursday on a police station in Lakki Marwat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Four officers, including a deputy superintendent, lost their lives as they rushed towards the scene in a “planned act of terrorism”, senior local police official Muhammad Ashfaq told AFP.
The TTP claimed responsibility for the attack and accused deputy superintendent Iqbal Mohmand of “brutally” killing its fighters. The group added that there were no casualties on its side.
Ashfaq said that Mohmand was known as an “exceptional poet”. “He was always the centre of attention during poetic festivals,” he said.
Senior local administration official Tariqullah said the bomb blew up the armoured personnel vehicle ferrying the officers when it was around three kilometres from the police station. He added that five officers at the station, as well as the driver, were injured in the attack.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, expressed grief over the attack in a Twitter post. The attack “has left my heart heavy with sorrow”, he said.
“Our police officers and soldiers have made unforgettable sacrifices in the war against terrorism,” he said.
The TTP has targeted law enforcement officials over accusations that they conduct extrajudicial executions.
Pakistan has been witnessing rising attacks by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) ever since the Afghan Taliban re-captured Kabul in 2021. In January this year, more than 80 officers were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque inside a police compound in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
The TTP was founded in 2007 when Pakistani militants fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan splintered off to focus attacks on Islamabad as payback for supporting the US invasion after the 9/11 attacks.
(With inputs from agencies)
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