On Thursday, Taliban militants in Pakistan killed four police officers and wounded six others in two separate attacks. The first attack targeted a police station in Lakki Marwat, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. Later, the militants targeted a police vehicle with a roadside bomb, killing four officers who were responding to the earlier attack. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for both attacks.
The Pakistani Taliban ended a cease-fire with the government of Pakistan, which has resulted in an uptick in attacks in the country. The group, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, is separate but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban. TTP has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 when U.S. and NATO troops were leaving the country after 20 years of war. Many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuaries in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover.
Pakistan has seen numerous militant attacks over the past two decades, but there has been an increase since November when the TTP ended a monthslong Afghan Taliban-brokered cease-fire with the government of Pakistan. The authorities are conducting a search for the militant suspects who carried out the attacks.
