Pakistani Taliban claims deadly border police attack near Afghanistan

Shafaq News/ On Friday, the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan/TTP) claimed responsibility for a nighttime assault on a border police post near the Afghan frontier, leaving 17 Pakistani officers dead and wounded.

A senior Pakistani intelligence official, speaking anonymously to AFP, confirmed that “an attack near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border resulted in the deaths of ten Pakistani border police officers.”

The official detailed, “The intense firefight lasted nearly an hour. Ten border police officers were martyred, and seven others were injured in the attack.”

The incident occurred as 20 to 25 armed militants launched a concentrated assault on a border police post in Dera Ismail Khan, located in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The Pakistani Taliban later claimed responsibility for the assault in an official statement.

Pakistan has witnessed a rise in militant attacks since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021, with the Pakistani Taliban targeting security forces in a series of violent incidents. Pakistani police in the region frequently engage in operations targeting militants, who maintain a presence in the area.