Key takeaways
- At least 10 police officers were killed in an ambush in Kohat district, Pakistan, on 11 November, according to AP and the Express Tribune.
- No group had claimed responsibility, and AP wrote that suspicion is likely to fall on the TTP, a link that remains unconfirmed.
- The team was heading to an illegal gold-mining raid, and no source links the ambush to the mining crackdown.
Militants ambushed vehicles carrying police officers in Kohat district, northwestern Pakistan, on Wednesday, 11 November, killing at least 10 officers, AP and the Express Tribune reported. Local police official Faisal Khan told AP that an exchange of fire between security forces and the attackers was ongoing. No group had claimed responsibility.
The police team was on its way to a raid against illegal gold mining in the Gambat area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) province, which borders Afghanistan. Kohat police spokesperson Muhammad Nauman Zeb said the team came under fire in the Darbokach Jalandhar Banda area, between Kohat and Karak. The reports available did not give the number of attackers, any militant casualties or any word that the fighting had ended. The figures here are the earliest available and may change.
Fire from the hilltops
Zeb said initial reports suggested the attackers opened fire on the police from hilltops, causing casualties and damaging police vehicles. Five police vehicles were set on fire, he said, according to the Express Tribune and the Minute Mirror.
Zeb named two of the dead: Haider Zaman, the deputy superintendent of police (DSP) for Gambat, and Sub-Inspector Mukhtiar. Khan told AP that two senior officers were among the dead. The reports do not say whether Khan meant those same two men.
The attackers kept firing, Zeb said, producing a "heavy exchange of fire", as the Express Tribune reported. More police vehicles were sent and a "heavy police contingent" was called in. Security in the area was placed on high alert, and an emergency was declared at the District Headquarters Teaching Hospital.
AP wrote that suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). AP said the group has stepped up attacks on security forces in the region in recent months, though no group had immediately claimed responsibility for this attack. TTP involvement in this attack is unconfirmed.
Observers are reading: A record of the attacks on K-P police reported since 18 September, set against official security reports on who the militants are targeting.
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What to watch
Two readings remain open, and neither is confirmed. One is a militant attack. The other is violence tied to the gold-mining economy. Police say the team was heading to a raid on illegal mining, but no source gives that as the attackers' motive. On 10 November, the day before, Kohat's Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Nawaz Wazir imposed Section 144 for 60 days in designated mining areas, with the Pakistan Observer reporting that the orders bar excavation machinery from being present or parked in specified locations and restrict the sale of petroleum products in open containers, and The News reporting a ban on the sale, purchase and transportation of petroleum products in open containers.
If the TTP is responsible, the Afghan question follows. AP describes the group as separate from but closely allied with the Afghan Taliban, who returned to power in 2021. Pakistan frequently accuses Kabul of sheltering TTP militants, and Kabul denies it. On 21 September Pakistan carried out what it called "calibrated" airstrikes in Afghanistan's Kunar and Paktika provinces.
Watch for the final death toll, any claim of responsibility, any official response, and whether Islamabad links the attack to Afghanistan.
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