A fierce overnight militant raid on a police outpost in northwestern Pakistan has left 11 police officers and 15 attackers dead, officials confirmed on Thursday.
The hourlong gunbattle erupted after militants armed with heavy weapons targeted the Khazina police post in the Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which shares a border with Afghanistan. According to police official Irfan Khan, security forces fought back and killed 15 of the attackers during the clash.
Among the police fatalities was Diyar Khan, a senior officer who was killed while leading reinforcements to the scene. The responding forces were ambushed on their way, resulting in damage to an armored personnel carrier before the officers managed to repel the assault. More than two dozen other police officers sustained wounds during the incident.
While no group has claimed immediate responsibility for the raid, suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The group has recently intensified its operations against security forces in the border region.
The TTP operates as a separate entity but remains a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who regained power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021. The surge in militant violence has strained relations between the neighboring nations, as Islamabad repeatedly accuses Kabul of harboring TTP militants, a claim that the Afghan Taliban government continues to deny.
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