Ten police officers and 18 militants died on Wednesday after an ambush on police vehicles in northwestern Pakistan triggered a prolonged gunbattle, officials said.
The attack hit the Kohat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the Afghan border. Local police official Faisal Khan said the officers were returning from an operation against criminals involved in illegal gold mining near Kohat.
Two senior police officers were among the 10 personnel killed. Security forces and the attackers exchanged gunfire for several hours.
Hours after the clash, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility in a formal statement. Also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, the group has stepped up attacks on security forces in the region over recent months.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police released a statement saying 18 Khawarij, a term the government uses for the TTP, also died in the shootout.
Police alleged that the attackers worked with criminal elements, showing links between criminal networks and the Pakistani Taliban. Officials asserted the two factions joined hands at the behest of foreign powers, though they offered no evidence to support these claims.
Authorities vowed to take action against anyone facilitating militants and criminal networks, stating that no illegal activity would be tolerated in the area.
In Islamabad, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the violence and paid tribute to the slain officers.
Pakistan has faced a surge in violence in recent years, blamed mostly on the TTP. The group operates separately from, but remains closely allied with, the Afghan Taliban who regained power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021.
Pakistan regularly accuses the Afghan Taliban administration of sheltering TTP fighters, a charge Kabul denies. The rising violence has strained relations between Islamabad and the Afghan government, prompting Pakistan to carry out military strikes since last year against suspected TTP hideouts near the border and inside Afghanistan.
