PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Two Pakistani policemen were killed while guarding teams collecting census data in separate attacks claimed by the local Taliban, police said Tuesday.
Pakistan started a month-long digital census at the beginning of March with security officials deployed alongside more than 120,000 enumerators.
Police are increasingly on the frontline of Pakistan’s battle with the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) and are frequently targeted by militants who accuse them of extra-judicial killings.
On Monday, two teams were attacked in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in separate districts close to the border with Afghanistan.
“Gunmen attacked the police party responsible for supervising the security of the census team from two directions,” said Farooq Khan, a police official in Tank district, adding that one officer was killed and four were wounded.
Later in the evening, the Pakistani military reported that one militant was killed in an “intense exchange of fire.”
In the other attack, men on a motorbike opened fire on police, killing one and wounding three.
“The security measures were further intensified and the census process was resumed,” Lakki Marwat district administration official Tariq Ullah said.
The attacks follow a similar assault last week in the same region which left an officer dead.
The TTP, which is separate from the Afghan Taliban but has a similar Islamist ideology, claimed all three attacks.
“Our primary target is the police, regardless of whether they are escorting politicians, polio teams, or census teams,” a TTP commander said.
Pakistan is facing overlapping political, economic and environmental crises, as well as a worsening security situation, since the Afghan Taliban took control of Kabul in August 2021.
In January, more than 80 officers were killed when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest at a mosque inside a police compound in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
The census is gathering demographic data ahead of parliamentary elections due by October.
Political parties and ethnic groups regularly criticize census statistics for undercounting, data manipulation and other irregularities.
Pakistan Taliban kill policemen guarding census team
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Pakistan Taliban kill policemen guarding census team
- Pakistan started a month-long digital census at the beginning of March with security officials deployed alongside more than 120,000 enumerators
Indonesia reaffirms Yemen’s territorial integrity, backs stability efforts amid tensions
- Statement comes after Saudi Arabia bombed a UAE weapons shipment at Yemeni port city
- Jakarta last week said it ‘appreciates’ Riyadh ‘working together’ with Yemen to restore stability
JAKARTA: Indonesia has called for respect for Yemen’s territorial integrity and commended efforts to maintain stability in the region, a day after Saudi Arabia bombed a weapons shipment from the UAE at a Yemeni port city that Riyadh said was intended for separatist forces.
Saudi Arabia carried out a “limited airstrike” at Yemen’s port city of Al-Mukalla in the southern province of Hadramout on Tuesday, following the arrival of an Emirati shipment that came amid heightened tensions linked to advances by the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council in the war-torn country.
In a statement issued late on Wednesday, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “appreciates further efforts by concerned parties to maintain stability and security,” particularly in the provinces of Hadramout and Al-Mahara.
“Indonesia reaffirms the importance of peaceful settlement through an inclusive and comprehensive political dialogue under the coordination of the United Nations and respecting Yemen’s legitimate government and territorial integrity,” Indonesia’s foreign affairs ministry said.
The latest statement comes after Jakarta said last week that it “appreciates the efforts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as other relevant countries, working together with Yemeni stakeholders to de-escalate tensions and restore stability.”
Saudi Arabia leads the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, which includes the UAE and was established in 2015 to combat the Houthi rebels, who control most of northern Yemen.
Riyadh has been calling on the STC, which initially supported Yemen’s internationally recognized government against the Houthi rebels, to withdraw after it launched an offensive against the Saudi-backed government troops last month, seeking an independent state in the south.
Indonesia has also urged for “all parties to exercise restraint and avoid unilateral action that could impact security conditions,” and has previously said that the rising tensions in Yemen could “further deteriorate the security situation and exacerbate the suffering” of the Yemeni people.
Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country, maintains close ties with both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which are its main trade and investment partners in the Middle East.
