Five Pakistani police personnel killed in ‘gun and bomb’ 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.

Provincial police said the vehicle was first targeted with improvised explosives before the attackers opened fire, killing four officers and the driver. No group has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack. “Police have always played a frontline role in the war against terrorism,” Sharif said. 

The attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Karak district, a region relatively unscathed by militant attacks, comes as relations between Pakistan and neighboring 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.

Pakistan’s mountainous border regions are home to Islamist militants from the Tehreek-e-Taliban, who have waged a war against the Pakistani state for nearly 20 years. 

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