Two police officers killed in attacks in northwest Pakistan

March 13 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Two Pakistani policemen have died and five more have been wounded in two attacks perpetrated against agents deployed within the framework of the ongoing electoral census in the province of Khiber Pakhtunjua, in the north-west of the country.

The attacks have taken place in the districts of Tank and Lakki Marwat, according to police sources and the emergency organization Rescue-1122 quoted by the Pakistani newspaper ‘Dawn’.

Among the deceased is Jan Nawab, while officers Shah Nawaz, Aslam Jan, Bismilah, Abdullah and Eid Yan have been injured, all of whom were shot when they were in a van in Kot Azam, in the Tank district.

The wounded officers managed to counterattack and the attackers fled. Later, police reinforcements cordoned off the area and launched a search operation for those responsible.

On the other hand, in the village of Parwala, district of Lakki Marwat, two armed individuals have killed the officer Dil Yan near the Sadar police station and have fled the place. Police reinforcements have already cordoned off the area.

Last week another policeman died in the census process in the Dera Ismail Khan district, also in Khiber Pakhtunjua. Tehrik e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Pakistani security forces have increased their operations against TTP in recent weeks after the armed group announced at the end of November the end of the ceasefire agreed with the Pakistani authorities in the midst of contacts that were being mediated by the Taliban. Afghans after his takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.

The TTP group, which differs from the Afghan Taliban in organizational matters but follows the same rigorous interpretation of Sunni Islam, brings together more than a dozen Islamist militant groups operating in Pakistan, where they have killed some 70,000 people in two decades of violence.

In the month of January 2023 alone, the TTP killed 134 people and injured 254 others in 44 attacks in Pakistan, according to the Pakistani Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.