PESHAWAR: Unidentified gunmen on Thursday shot dead a policeman in the restive North Waziristan tribal district in Pakistan’s northwest, a police officer said, a day after the killing of a counterterrorism official and a religious leader in the volatile region.

The slain police official Tariq Khan was on leave in his hometown in Tapi, a rugged village on the outskirts of the district headquarters of Miran Shah, according to District Police Officer (DPO) Rohanzeb Khan.

“At around 5pm today, gunmen on motorbike opened fire, leaving police official dead on the spot,” he told Arab News, adding that body of the slain policeman had been shifted to hospital for medico-legal formalities.

A police team was dispatched to the spot immediately after the killing to collect evidence, according to Khan.

“We don’t have a final say because we’re investigating the case from different angles to know about the nature of the incident. However, as of yet, we are treating it as a case of target killing,” he added. 

On Tuesday, an official, who had been working with the provincial counterterrorism department (CTD), and a senior cleric affiliated with the Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) religious party were shot dead in two separate incidents of “targeted killings” in the same district, according to police.

The suspects, who were riding motorbikes, managed to get away from the scene.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the recent spate of killings, suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, or the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), who have had a significant presence in North Waziristan and adjacent districts before being driven out as a result of successive military operations over the years.

The targeted killings come at a time of renewed militant violence in Pakistan’s northwestern and southwestern regions that border Afghanistan. The violence initially picked up after the TTP called off its fragile, months-long truce with the government in November 2022.

Last month, seven Pakistani soldiers, including two army officers, were killed in a militant attack in the same district, the Pakistani military said. The attack led the Pakistani military to carry out rare airstrikes against suspected TTP hideouts inside Afghanistan on March 18, killing eight people. The strikes prompted Afghan forces to fire heavy weapons at Pakistani soldiers along the border.

Last Wednesday, Afghan Deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Nabi Omari urged Pakistan and the banned TTP to resolve their disputes and start negotiations afresh. But Pakistan’s foreign office on Thursday rejected the Afghan minister’s suggestion, urging Kabul to take action against militant groups operating from its soil. 

Both Pakistan and Afghanistan have traded blame in recent months over who is responsible for a recent spate of militant attacks in Pakistan. Islamabad says the attacks are launched mostly by TTP members who operate from safe havens in Afghanistan. Kabul denies this and blames Islamabad for not being able to handle its own security challenges.