Terrorists attacked a police post in Karak district of Pakistan’s troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

ISLAMABAD: Nearly a dozen terrorists broke into a police checkpoint in Karak district, in the unrest-plagued northwest of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, Thursday, killing at least three police officers and injuring six more, according to authorities.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has often attacked police and security officials in the province, is likely to be suspected of carrying out the assault, even though no organization has yet claimed credit.

“In an effort to seize the checkpoint in Karak’s Bahadur Khel neighborhood, the terrorists used both light and heavy weaponry to attack police officers as they opened fire from all directions. The terrorists escaped after two hours of fierce resistance from police officers at the checkpoint, according to a statement from the provincial police.

Following the breakdown of a precarious ceasefire between the TTP and the state in November 2022, Pakistan has seen an increase in militancy in KP, which is next to Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials have blamed the increase in terrorist violence on Afghan cross-border incursions, claiming the Kabul government is aiding TTP militants. Afghan officials deny this accusation. Although civilians and government officials have also been affected, security and law enforcement officers have been the target of the majority of these attacks.

Last week, four troops were killed by gunfire and an improvised explosive device (IED) set off by militants in the Dera Ismail Khan area of KP.

Earlier this month, militants murdered 18 troops in Balochistan, another unrest-plagued region in southern Pakistan.

With at least 685 military and police deaths from 444 terror acts, 2024 has been dubbed the most deadly year for security services in a decade by the Islamabad think tank Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS).

In addition to these incidents, terrorists in KP and Balochistan have increased the number of targeted assassinations and kidnappings of authorities.