PM condemns policeman’s killing in northwest Pakistan, orders arrest of perpetrators

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday condemned the killing of a policeman in a militant attack in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, ordering authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The statement came after unidentified militants attacked a police check-post in the Kurram tribal district and killed one policeman and injured another, according to the police.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
“Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif strongly condemned the terrorist attack on the police check-post in Kurram area and directed authorities to identify those responsible for the attack and punish them,” Sharif’s office said in a statement.
The prime minister asked officials to ensure the provision of best medical facilities to the injured policeman.
The northwestern Pakistani province, which borders Afghanistan, has been the scene of a number of attacks on police, security forces and anti-polio vaccination teams in recent months.
Pakistan initially witnessed a spike in militant violence in its two western provinces, KP and Balochistan, since the Pakistani Taliban called off their fragile truce with the government in November 2022. The group has intensified its attacks recently.
Islamabad blames the latest surge in violence on neighboring Afghanistan, saying Pakistani Taliban leaders have taken refuge there and run camps to train insurgents to launch attacks inside Pakistan. The Afghan Taliban rulers in Kabul say rising violence in Pakistan is a domestic issue for Islamabad and it does not allow militants to operate on its territory.
The latest death has brought the total number of police killings in ambushes and targeted attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this year to 69, according to an Arab News tally.