Four security personnel killed in two separate attacks in northwest Pakistan

A Police convoy drive to a remote village in Karak district, some 160 kms southeast of Peshawar, Pakistan, on December 31, 2020. (AFP/File)

• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has witnessed attacks on police and security personnel, along with polio vaccination teams
• The two attacks took place in Karak and North Waziristan districts, close to Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan

PESHAWAR: Almost a week after police protested against militant attacks in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, four security personnel were killed in a targeted attack and a gunbattle with armed factions in the region on Thursday, confirmed police officials.
The first incident occurred in Karak, a southern district of the province, where unidentified assailants on a motorbike gunned down an official of the paramilitary Levies Force, an ill-equipped outfit, earlier in the day.
“Unidentified gunmen shot dead the Levies Force official in the center of the district after he left his home for duty,” Shaukat Khan, a police spokesperson in Karak district, told Arab News over the phone.
He informed that a police contingent arrived at the crime scene to gather evidence and trace the killers.
In another incident, three security personnel lost their lives in an exchange of fire with militants in North Waziristan’s Boya village near the border with Afghanistan.
“We have information of an exchange of fire near Boya in which three security personnel lost their lives,” Murad Khan, an official deployed at the police control room in the area, told Arab News.
KP, which borders Afghanistan, has witnessed numerous attacks on police, security personnel and anti-polio vaccination teams in recent months, along with kidnappings of civil and military officials.
Only a week ago, police in the volatile district of Lakki Marwat called off their days-long protest, condemning a spike in militant attacks and targeted killings of police officials.
Last week, unidentified gunmen opened fire on police guards escorting a polio vaccination team, killing one of them.
The Pakistan Army has a heavy presence across the province, where it has been battling militants from Al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban and other groups for nearly two decades.
There have been protests in several districts of KP since July, when Pakistan’s cabinet announced a new military operation amid a surge in terror attacks across the country.
People in KP have rejected plans for an armed operation and demand that civilian agencies like the police and the counter-terrorism department be better equipped.
No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attacks so far, but officials in Islamabad say militants associated with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are primarily responsible for violence against the police and security personnel.
Islamabad has even blamed Kabul’s Afghan Taliban rulers for “facilitating” anti-Pakistan militants, a charge Kabul denies.