Five Pakistani police personnel killed in bombing, shooting attack

PESHAWAR, Pakistan Dec 23 (Reuters) – Five Pakistani police personnel were killed on Tuesday when their van was ambushed in a bombing and shooting attack in the country’s northwest, provincial police said, as Pakistan struggles with a resurgence of militant violence.

The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an Islamist militant group, later claimed responsibility for the attack. The group has waged war against the Pakistani state for nearly 20 years.

Provincial police said the vehicle was first targeted with improvised explosives before the attackers opened fire, killing four officers and the driver. They later said security forces had killed eight of the militants involved.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack, saying: “Police have always played a frontline role in the war against terrorism.”

The attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Karak district, a region relatively unscathed by militant attacks, comes as relations between Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan have collapsed after a surge in violence.

The countries have struggled to maintain a truce following their worst border clashes since the Taliban came to power in October, with Islamabad blaming the rise in militancy on groups using Afghan soil to plot their attacks.

Kabul denies the charges, saying Pakistan’s security is an internal problem.

(Reporting by Mushtaq Ali in Peshawar, Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismial Khan and Mubasher Bukhair in Lahore; Writing by Saad SayeedEditing by Michael Perry and Gareth Jones)