PESHAWAR: Militants attacked a regional police headquarters and two military posts in northwest Pakistan early Friday, triggering firefights that killed five security personnel and five insurgents, police and the military said.
The attacks came three days after a suicide bomber in the same region rammed his car into a police station’s main gate and five others opened fire, killing 23 officers in this year’s worst attack on Pakistani security forces.
The military and local police chief Iftikhar Shah said three police officers were “martyred” and three others were wounded in an attack on the police headquarters in the town of Tank in Dera Ismail Khan, while a total of five attackers died in the ensuing shootouts.
Hours later, Pakistani Taliban also attacked a military post in the northwestern Khyber region bordering Afghanistan, killing two soldiers and wounding five others, local police official Salim Khan said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for Friday’s attacks, but suspicion was likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.
The group is separate from Afghanistan’s Taliban though it is allied with the Afghan movement, which seized power in the neighboring country in August 2021 as United States and NATO troops were in the final stages of withdrawing after 20 years of war.
The car bombing Tuesday was claimed by the newly formed militant Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistani group, which is believed to be an offshoot of the TTP.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in attacks since 2022, when TTP ended a cease-fire.
The deadliest was in January when a suicide bomber disguised as a policeman attacked a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 101 people, mostly police officers.
The increasing militant violence has further strained relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban-led administration. Pakistan often accuses the Taliban of hosting TTP leaders on Afghan territory, from where they launch their attacks.
Pakistan summoned a Taliban-appointed representative from Kabul to protest Tuesday’s bombing. Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the attack and promised to investigate.
Five officers and 5 militants killed in attacks on police office and 2 army posts in northwest Pakistan
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Five officers and 5 militants killed in attacks on police office and 2 army posts in northwest Pakistan
- Militants attacked a regional police headquarters and two military posts in northwest Pakistan early Friday
- Attacks came three days after militants attacked police station, killing 23 officers in year’s worst attack on security forces
Pakistan reports new polio case, taking 2025 tally to 31
- The virus infected a four-month-old girl in KP’s North Waziristan district
- Symptoms were detected in December last year, health authorities said
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has reported a new case of wild poliovirus in its northwest, taking the country’s total number of polio cases in 2025 to 31, health authorities said on Tuesday, highlighting the persistence of the disease in high-risk areas despite vaccination campaigns.
The latest infection was confirmed in a four-month-old girl from North Waziristan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health in Islamabad, which detected wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in laboratory samples.
“The child had onset of symptoms in December, and subsequent samples collected from her were positive for WPV1, the lab reported this week,” said the statement. “Therefore, this is the 31st case of 2025.”
Last year, Pakistan reported 20 cases from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, nine from Sindh and one each from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan, according to health authorities. Southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa accounted for more than half of Pakistan’s WPV1 cases in 2025, with 17 of the country’s 31 cases reported from the region.
“Ongoing security challenges have limited consistent access for polio teams in parts of southern KP, including North Waziristan, resulting in persistent immunity gaps and leaving children vulnerable to this paralytic disease,” the statement said.
It added that it was critical to ensure that every child is reached with the polio vaccine in every house-to-house campaign and has received full doses of routine immunization.
Polio is a highly contagious viral disease that can cause permanent paralysis, mainly in children under five.
Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where the disease remains endemic.
