PESHAWAR: The Pakistani Taliban killed at least five police officers and wounded six others in multiple attacks in the country’s northwest, police said Friday.
There were at least five separate attacks across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a police official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The killings were claimed by the Pakistani Taliban — known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — which in mid-March announced a “spring campaign” against the security forces.
The group has since claimed responsibility for more than 80 attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a mountainous province along the porous Afghan border.
Qasim Ali, police chief in the provincial capital Peshawar, said “there has been a noticeable rise in attacks on the police” recently.
Such incidents are a daily occurrence in the region, where the military regularly says it kills “terrorists.”
Ali reported attacks against police in nine district over just two days since TTP announced its offensive, saying the force has responded with more counterterrorism operations.
More than 170 people, mostly security personnel, have been killed in militant attacks against the state in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and neighboring Balochistan province since the beginning of this year, according to an AFP tally.
Balochistan saw a dramatic train siege this month which officials said resulted in around 60 deaths, half of which were separatists behind the assault.
Last year was the deadliest year in almost a decade, with more than 1,600 people killed in attacks in Pakistan — nearly half of them security forces personnel — according to the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies.
The violence is largely limited to Pakistan’s border regions with Afghanistan.
Islamabad accuses Kabul of failing to counter militants operating from its territory that are targeting Pakistan, an allegation the Taliban authorities deny.
Pakistan Taliban kill five police officers in multiple attacks
https://arab.news/zm59q
Pakistan Taliban kill five police officers in multiple attacks
- The group announced a ‘spring campaign’ against the security forces earlier this month
- Militant attacks have so far claimed over 170 lives in Pakistan’s western provinces this year
Pakistan arrests suspect arriving from Cambodia amid crackdown on human smuggling
- Suspect worked at an “online fraud company” in Cambodia, later started smuggling people from Pakistan, says FIA
- Pakistan has intensified crackdown against human smugglers after hundreds of migrants drowned near Pylos in 2023
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Sunday said it had arrested a key suspect involved in smuggling humans who had arrived from Cambodia, alleging he was also part of an international fraud network.
The suspect, identified as Zainullah, was arrested by FIA officials when he arrived in the southern port city of Karachi from Cambodia.
Zainullah had traveled from Pakistan to Cambodia in September 2024, a press release issued by the agency said.
“He worked at an online fraud company in Cambodia and later became involved as an agent in recruiting individuals from Pakistan,” the FIA said.
The FIA said it recovered images of multiple individuals’ passports, payment receipts and bank transaction records after extracting data from Zainullah’s phone.
It said the suspect received money through personal bank accounts and a cryptocurrency account.
“The suspect has been handed over to the FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Circle, Karachi, for further legal proceedings,” the FIA said.
“Further investigation is underway.”
Pakistan intensified action against illegal migration in 2023 after hundreds of migrants, including 262 Pakistanis, drowned when an overcrowded vessel sank off the Greek town of Pylos, one of the deadliest boat disasters in the Mediterranean.
Authorities say they continue to target networks sending citizens abroad through dangerous routes, following heightened scrutiny at airports and a series of arrests involving forged documents.
Pakistan’s interior ministry said this week illegal migration to Europe has declined by 47 percent this year after its nationwide crackdown, saying that more than 1,700 human smugglers have been arrested in 2025.
