Three security officials and a doctor killed, snooker club set on fire in northwest Pakistan shooting
PESHAWAR: Three security personnel have been killed by unidentified gunmen in northwest Pakistan over the past two days, police said on Monday, while a doctor was shot dead and a snooker club was set ablaze.
Islamabad has condemned a surge in militant attacks in neighboring Afghanistan, saying leaders of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) have taken refuge in the country and are running camps to train militants to carry out attacks inside Pakistan. Afghan Taliban leaders in Kabul say the rise in violence in Pakistan is Islamabad’s internal matter and they will not allow militants to operate on their territory.
The TTP owes allegiance to the Afghan Taliban and takes its name from them, but is not directly affiliated with them. Its declared aim is to impose Islamic religious law in Pakistan, just as the Taliban have done in Afghanistan.
Police official Nahid Khan said on Monday that “well-armed” militants carried out an overnight attack on Takhta Baig checkpost in the northwestern Khyber district, killing a Border Guard (FC) paramilitary soldier and a policeman.
“Security forces deployed to the checkpoint repelled the attack after a fierce gun battle, forcing the militants to flee,” he added.
In a separate incident, North Waziristan district district police officer (DPO) Rohanzeb Khan said unidentified gunmen shot dead a Special Branch policeman late on Sunday night.
“Masked gunmen on two motorbikes shot dead a Special Branch police officer in Adak, a town on the outskirts of Miran Shah. [North Waziristan] “The district,” Kahn said.
Dr Abdul Rasheed, working at Khar District Hospital in Bajaur tribal district, was also shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Sunday, police said.
“The doctor’s murder took place in Mohammed,” police officer Ajab Khan told Arab News.
Police said on Monday that a snooker club was set on fire in Sultankhel market in Khyber province and a note was left behind warning that it should not be rebuilt. The club was built by journalist Khalil Gibran, who was shot dead by unidentified gunmen last month.
No group has claimed responsibility for the recent violence, but authorities widely suspect the TTP is behind it.
The northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has seen an increase in attacks on security facilities and assassinations of police and government officials in recent months, with the TTP claiming responsibility for most of the attacks.
Last week, unidentified gunmen abducted 13 workers in the northwestern Tank region, police said, but released nine. And last month, two Pakistani soldiers from the paramilitary Border Force were killed in clashes between security forces and militants suspected of infiltrating into Pakistan’s northwestern border from neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s military has carried out a series of operations in the tribal areas since 2014 that have effectively dismantled the TTP, killing most of its top leaders and driving most of its fighters into neighboring Afghanistan, where Islamabad says they are regrouping, a charge Kabul denies.
The federal government last month announced the launch of a new counter-terrorism operation, “Azm-e-Istekam,” but so far the operation has been opposed by the opposition.
