ISLAMABAD: President Arif Alvi has condemned a militant attack on a police station in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar that killed three policemen this week and said the state would continue its fight against militancy until the menace was completely uprooted from the country, a statement from the president’s secretariat said on Sunday.
Militants also shot and killed three police officers on the outskirts of Peshawar in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, adding to a spate of violence in the restive northwestern region that borders Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the police station attack and killing the officers.
The president condemned the attack and expressed grief over the death of the policemen, saying the state was standing with the families of the deceased in this hour of sorrow.
“The president of the country Dr. Arif Alvi has condemned the attack on the Sarband police station in Peshawar and has expressed grief over the martyrdom of police officers and youths,” the statement said.
“The war against terrorists will continue until terrorism was completely uprooted from the country.”
The president, on behalf of the Pakistani nation, paid a tribute to the policemen who lost their lives while fighting “terrorism,” according to the statement.
The TTP has waged an insurgency in Pakistan over the past 15 years, fighting for stricter enforcement of Islamic laws in the country, the release of their members in government custody, and a reduction of Pakistani military presence in the country’s former tribal regions. They also claimed responsibility for an attack Friday at a police checkpoint in Punjab’s Taunsa district that killed two officers.
The group has stepped up attacks on security forces after unilaterally ending a cease-fire with the Pakistani government in November. The TTP is separate but allied with the Afghan Taliban.
