Pakistan police hold protests over militant attacks, cop killings in northwest province

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Police in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province are staging a sit-in in the district of Lakki Marwat against a surge in militant attacks and the targeted assassinations of officers, with police and tribal elders on Tuesday saying the police department needed to be empowered to restore peace and stability in the volatile region.

The sit-in by policemen, who have been joined by representatives of civil society and political parties as well as tribal elders and members of the public, entered its second day on Tuesday, days after unidentified gunmen attacked a police van in Lakki Marwat, killing an officer. Two brothers of a serving police man in Lakki Marwat were also gunned down last week. 

Pakistan has seen a rise in militant attacks in recent weeks, with many of them taking place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where groups like the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, have stepped up attacks, daily targeting security forces convoys and check posts, and carrying out targeted killings and kidnappings of law enforcers and government officials.

At least 75 policemen have been killed in ambushes and target killings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2024, according to police figures. 

“Only last week, an investigation officer and two brothers of a police officer were killed by unidentified gunmen. These kinds of attacks have created a sense of insecurity among policemen, which has forced them to launch protests to get their constitutional rights of protection for themselves and the community,” Lakki Marwat police spokesman Shahid Marwat told Arab News.

He said hundreds of policemen were taking part in the protest and were blocking the main Karachi-Peshawar Highway. Local supporters of all political parties and members of civil society and tribal jirgas had also joined the demonstration in solidarity with police, Marwat said. 

The volatile Lakki Marwat district is located on the edge of Pakistan’s restive tribal regions that border Afghanistan, from where Islamabad says militants mainly associated with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) frequently launch attacks, targeting police and other security forces. Islamabad has even blamed Kabul’s Afghan Taliban rulers of facilitating anti-Pakistan militants. Kabul denies the charges. 

Anees Khan Marwat, a senior Lakki Marwat police officer, said the protesters had two demands: security against targeted killings and withdrawal of the army from the district as well as the empowerment of police.

“Our protest will continue until the acceptance of our two demands,” he told Arab News. 

Local elder Misbahullah Marwat said the region’s population was backing the police force and many members of the public had joined the sit-in because daily attacks on police officials were “no longer acceptable” to the people of the province.

“Police with active support from the local population can deal with militants and other issues pertaining to security,” he said. 

In similar protests in KP’s Bannu in July, protest leaders rejected plans to launch a new military operation in the province and demanded that a spike in militant attacks in the region be tackled by empowering and better equipping civilian agencies like the police and the counter-terrorism department.