Six out of eight targeted police officers were killed by Pakistan’s militants in overnight gun and grenade attacks, an official said on Thursday.
According to police officer Mohammad Ali Babakhel, the attacks targeted police stations, checkpoints and patrols across seven districts in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, as the nation of 240 million people celebrated its 78th independence day.
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He said the militants used rocket-propelled grenade launchers in some of the attacks, adding six officers were killed and another nine injured.
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A spike in the attacks in recent months is a tough challenge to handle for the overstretched and under-equipped police force, the frontline against militant attacks.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a Pakistani Islamist militant group linked to the Afghan Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The TTP is an umbrella group for several Sunni Islamist groups. It has been fighting the state since 2007, attempting to overthrow the government and replace it with its own form of Islamic rule.
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The TTP’s truce with the Pakistani government was revoked in late 2022, leading to an increase in attacks.
In 2024, Islamist militants carried out 335 countrywide attacks, killing 520 people, according to the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, an independent organisation.
Pakistan says the militants operate out of neighbouring Afghanistan, where they train fighters and plan attacks, a charge Kabul has denied.
