The Kohat ambush kills ten police officers in one of the deadliest attacks on Pakistan‘s police in months. Militants attacked police vehicles in Kohat district, in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa near the border with Afghanistan, on Wednesday. The officers were returning from an operation against illegal gold extraction in the Darbokach area when the attackers struck, turning a routine return journey into a prolonged gunbattle.
At least 10 officers were killed, including two senior officers, DSP Haidar Zaman and a sub inspector. Eighteen militants also died in the fighting that followed, according to provincial police. The exchange of fire between security forces and the attackers lasted several hours, a local police official said, underlining the scale and intensity of the assault.
The Kohat ambush kills ten police in a region that has long been exposed to militant violence. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa borders Afghanistan, and its districts have seen repeated attacks on police, soldiers and civilians in recent years. The province sits at the centre of Pakistan’s security challenge, where militant groups, criminal networks and difficult terrain combine to make policing dangerous work.
Kohat ambush kills ten police as TTP claims responsibility
The Kohat ambush kills ten police officers in an attack that the Pakistani Taliban quickly claimed. A few hours after the ambush, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, known as the TTP, said in a statement that it was responsible. The claim places the attack in the context of a wider campaign of violence that the group has waged against the Pakistani state, and it will shape how the security forces respond.
Police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa say the attackers acted in collusion with criminal networks linked to illegal gold mining. They have not provided evidence to support that accusation, but the claim points to a second dimension of the attack. The officers had been carrying out an operation against illegal gold extraction, an activity that can bring armed groups and criminal interests into conflict with the state. If the link is confirmed, the ambush would show how militant violence and illegal mining can reinforce each other.
After the Kohat ambush kills ten police, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack and paid tribute to the fallen officers. His statement reflected the official response to an incident that has shaken the police force in the province. For the families of the dead, and for their colleagues, the loss of two senior officers alongside eight other policemen is a heavy blow, and it raises again the question of protection for police operating in high risk areas.
The Kohat ambush kills ten police amid a resurgence of violence in recent years, largely attributed to the TTP. The group is distinct from the Afghan Taliban but closely allied to it, and it has carried out a series of attacks on security forces and civilians since the end of a ceasefire. The pattern has put sustained pressure on the police and military in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where many of the attacks have taken place.
A border dispute that shapes the security crisis
Islamabad regularly accuses the Taliban government in Kabul of sheltering TTP fighters, a charge Kabul denies. Pakistan has carried out strikes since last year against suspected group hideouts in Afghanistan and along the border. The dispute over cross border militancy remains one of the most difficult issues in the relationship between the two countries, and it complicates every effort to reduce the violence inside Pakistan.
The Kohat ambush kills ten police in an attack that also raises questions about the economics of illegal mining. Gold extraction in remote areas can generate large profits outside state control, and it can fund armed groups or draw them into disputes over territory and revenue. Police operations against such activity therefore carry a double risk, confronting both criminal networks and the militants who may protect them or profit from them.
For the provincial police, the immediate task is to secure the area, support the families of the dead, and investigate the attack in full. The claim of collusion with gold mining networks will need evidence if it is to stand, and the wider investigation will need to establish how the attackers knew the route and timing of the police convoy. Those details matter, because they will determine whether the ambush was an opportunistic attack or a planned operation based on inside information.
The Kohat ambush kills ten police officers returning from duty, a reminder of the human cost of the conflict in Pakistan’s northwest. Ten officers lost their lives returning from duty, and 18 militants were killed in the response. The toll, and the claim of responsibility that followed, suggest that the violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is far from over, and that the province’s police will remain on the front line of a campaign that shows no sign of ending soon.
Source: AP