No claim of responsibility for attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that occurred while the country was conducting its seventh census.
Islamabad, Pakistan – Two police officers accompanying census teams have been killed in separate attacks in Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In one of the incidents, a group of attackers ambushed a police vehicle carrying nine men on Monday, Waqar Ahmed, the district police officer of Tank district, told Al Jazeera.
“There were 10 to 12 attackers who hid in a water channel, from where they started shooting at our mobile. The police retaliated, but one officer, Khan Nawab, died in the gunfight,” Ahmed said.
Four other police officers were injured in the attack, including two who were seriously injured and taken to the provincial capital of Peshawar for treatment.
In a statement on Monday evening, the Pakistan Army’s media department said security forces pursued the attackers and killed a “terrorist commander” who identified it as “Abdul Rasheed alias Rasheedi”. It added that he was wanted by police for involvement in “numerous terrorist activities” against the security forces and the killing of civilians, without elaborating further.
The other attack took place Monday afternoon in Lakki Marwat district, about 86 km north of Tank.
It was carried out “by two hooded men riding a bicycle and opening fire on the census team, resulting in the death of officer Dil Jan,” Lakki Marwat police spokesman Shahid Hameed told Al Jazeera.
The attackers managed to flee after killing the official, Hameed said.
Responsibility for both attacks was not claimed.
Pakistan began its seventh census on March 1, a data-gathering exercise expected to last until April 1.
The country has recently seen an increase in attacks on its security forces by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an armed group also known as the Pakistan Taliban, after it unilaterally signed a ceasefire last November. agreement with the government.
Among the many demands of the TTP are stricter enforcement of Islamic laws, the release of its members from government custody and a reduction of the Pakistani military presence in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province bordering Afghanistan.
It is also seeking to reverse the 2018 merger of Pakistan’s tribal districts with neighboring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.