DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan Jan 12 (Reuters) – Seven Pakistani police officers were killed in a targeted bomb blast on their armoured vehicle on Monday, police in the northwestern Tank district said, as Islamabad contends with a rising wave of militancy.
Images of the attack showed the mangled wreckage of the vehicle overturned on the roadside.
Tank deputy police chief Pervez Shah said five police personnel were killed on the spot after the remote-controlled bomb went off, while two others had died in hospital.
“The brave policemen sacrificed their today for the peaceful future of the nation,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said in a statement.
No group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s blast.
Pakistan’s northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where Tank is located, has battled a resurgence of militant violence carried out primarily by the Islamist Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Pakistan has blamed the Afghan Taliban for providing a safe haven to TTP militants, saying they use Afghan soil to plan their strikes on targets in Pakistan. Kabul has denied the charges, saying Pakistan’s security is an internal problem.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are in the midst of a fragile truce following border clashes in October that killed dozens, their worst fighting since the Taliban took power in 2021.
(Reporting by Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan and Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore; Additional reporting by Mushtaq Ali in Peshawar; Writing by Saad Sayeed)
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