By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Militants killed nine policemen in two separate attacks in Pakistan on Tuesday, officials said, the latest in a surge of violence that has gripped the country’s northwest and parts of Punjab.
Gunmen ambushed a police vehicle in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kohat district, killing six officers including a deputy superintendent and one civilian, before torching the vehicle. Hours later, a suicide bomber struck a checkpost in Punjab’s Bhakkar district, killing two more policemen.
In Kohat, the vehicle, transporting two individuals to a court appearance, came under fire near Shakardara Road. Among the dead were Deputy Superintendent of Police Asad Mahmood of the Lachi police station, Inspector Innaar Gul and four constables, police said. One of the two individuals being transported was also killed. The attackers set the vehicle ablaze after the assault, a senior police officer said. Three other police personnel and one civilian initially survived the shooting but later succumbed to their wounds, pushing the death toll to seven. The attackers set the van ablaze. Additional police units cordoned off the area and launched a search operation, while an investigation was underway.
In the separate attack in Bhakkar, a suicide bomber blew himself up near the Dajjal checkpost on Tuesday evening, Bhakkar District Police Officer Shahzad Rafiq said. Two policemen, identified as Muhammad Faheem and Muhammad Shehbaz, were killed and a third, Arshad, was wounded. Three passersby were also injured, Rafiq said. The injured were taken to District Headquarters Hospital in Bhakkar. The blast occurred while police were conducting a search operation to maintain law and order in the area, the officer added.
The attacks come as Pakistan grapples with a sharp rise in militancy. According to the Centre for Research and Security Studies’ Annual Security Report 2025, fatalities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa jumped to 2,331 last year from 1,620 in 2024. On Monday, three Federal Constabulary personnel were killed in Karak district when militants ambushed an ambulance carrying injured personnel near Ghole Banda Dam. Three Rescue 1122 officials were wounded and the ambulances were destroyed by fire. Last week, militants rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a checkpoint in Bajaur district, killing 11 security personnel and a young girl while wounding seven others, including women and children.In a separate incident on Tuesday in Lower South Waziristan, unidentified gunmen shot dead a police constable in Wana tehsil. Security forces killed four suspected militants in an intelligence-based operation in Dera Ismail Khan district on the same day, recovering weapons and ammunition.
Militant violence has intensified in northwestern Pakistan since the Taliban took power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021. Pakistani officials accuse the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and other groups of launching cross-border attacks from Afghan soil, an allegation denied by Kabul.Pakistan has also pointed to Indian involvement in proxy attacks. In response to recent incidents, it carried out airstrikes on Sunday targeting militant camps in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar, Paktika and Khost provinces, killing more than 80 militants, security sources said. The two countries clashed along the border in October 2025, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides.
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