Pakistani militants kill six policemen in 13 attacks

Militants in Pakistan's northwest carried out 13 overnight gun and grenade attacks on the police, killing six officers, officials said on Thursday.

The attacks were against police stations, checkpoints and patrols across seven districts in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, police officer Mohammad Ali Babakhel said, as the nation of 240 million people celebrated its 78th independence day.

The militants used rocket-propelled grenade launchers in some of the attacks, he said, adding six officers were killed and another nine injured.

"Out of 13, we inflicted losses on them, repulsed them and forced them to flee in nine, ten incidents," Provincial police chief Zulfiqar Hameed told reporters after attending funerals of the police officers in one of the districts. "We suffered losses in two incidents."

He said the militants timed the attacks to coincide with the Independence Day celebration.

A spike in the attacks in recent months is a tough challenge to handle for the overstretched and under-equipped police force, the frontline against militant attacks.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a Pakistani Islamist militant group with links to the Afghan Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The TTP is an umbrella group of several Sunni Islamist groups. It has been fighting against the state since 2007 in a bid to overthrow the government and replace it with its version of Islamic law.

Attacks have accelerated since the TTP revoked a ceasefire with the Pakistani government in late 2022.

In 2024, Islamist militants carried out 335 countrywide attacks, killing 520 people, according to the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, an independent organisation.

Pakistan says the militants operate out of neighbouring Afghanistan, where they train fighters and plan attacks, a charge Kabul has denied.