PESHAWAR, Jan 16: Two policemen were injured in a late night attack by terrorists on a police checkpost in Pakistan’s Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province, police said on Thursday.
The terrorists attacked the checkpost at Puran tehsil in Shangla district of the province, a hilly terrain bordering Swat district.
Over a dozen assailants attacked the checkpost late in the night, but the police personnel on duty thwarted the strike which forced the attackers to flee.
As the news of the attack spread, local leaders from different political parties called on people to come out against the attackers and fight alongside them.
They also led an armed group to the checkpost, though the assailants had fled the area by then.
Pakistan has lately witnessed a sharp uptick in the number of attacks targeting security forces, other law enforcement agencies, and security checkpoints, particularly in Balochistan and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KP).
Police checkpoints in the remote areas of Shangla district are considered vulnerable to terrorist attacks due to their location in isolated areas surrounded by forests.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior police officer criticised the construction of checkposts in isolated locations.
On December 17 last year, more than 30 terrorists stormed a police checkpost in the Gunangar area of Chakesar in Shangla district, around 10 km from the Karakoram highway in Dandai.
The attack killed an assistant sub-inspector and a constable, and left three others injured.
Tehreek Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) Malakand region group claimed responsibility for the attack on social media, warning that it would hit more targets in near future in Shangla and other parts of the region. (PTI)
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