Pakistani Taliban kills four security officers in Balochistan
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Islamabad: Armed Taliban militants on Sunday attacked a group of policemen and paramilitary Frontier Constabulary officers at a highway checkpoint in Zhob district, located in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan.
The ambush led to a two-hour gun battle that resulted in the deaths of four security officers. Several others sustained injuries. The attack has been claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an extremist group operating in the country.
According to Zhob's commissioner, Saeed Umrani, "Four of the security officials, including three policemen and one Frontier Corps officer, were killed in the attack. One of the suspected attackers has also been killed but not yet identified." The commissioner added that the assailants, numbering around a dozen, targeted the checkpoint and initiated the violent confrontation, reported AFP.
The TTP, an organisation sharing an ideology similar to that of Afghanistan's Taliban, later claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement. The group identified the assailant shot dead by the police during the gunbattle. The TTP is distinct from the Afghan Taliban, they share extremist beliefs.
The frequency of attacks, primarily targeting security forces, has surged once again since the Taliban's takeover of Kabul in 2021 and the cessation of a months-long ceasefire between the TTP and Islamabad in November 2022. These incidents have become more regular in regions bordering Afghanistan, and Pakistani authorities allege that some attacks are being planned on Afghan soil.
The incident in Zhob district echoes previous instances of violence involving the Pakistan Taliban. In April, four policemen in Kuchlak, Balochistan, lost their lives in a gunbattle with terrorists linked to the TTP. In January 2023, a suicide bomber associated with the extremist group detonated explosives inside a mosque situated within a police compound in the northwestern city of Peshawar, resulting in the tragic deaths of over 80 officers.