Regional Police headquarters comes under attack in Pakistan; 5 policemen killed

Peshawar: At least five law enforcement officials were killed in militant attacks on a regional police headquarters and a checkpost in the restive northwest Pakistan on Friday that also killed four rebels, in an uptick in violence against security forces in the country.

The attacks come three days after terrorists killed 23 soldiers in the same region in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The first attack occurred at the Police Lines in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Tank district.

Three policemen were killed and three others injured in the attack. Four militants were also killed, authorities said.

A terrorist blew himself up at the main entrance of the police office and residence block and the others stormed in.

The attack was claimed by a new militant group, Ansarul Jihad.

In another attack, militants attacked the joint police and security forces check post in Nalla Bara tehsil in the Khyber tribal district in which two troops of the Frontier Constabulary were killed. Six people were also injured in the attack.

The attack comes days after at least 23 soldiers were killed and more than 30 others injured after militants belonging to the Tehreek-i-Jihad Pakistan (TJP), a newly formed militant group that is an affiliate of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), stormed a compound used by the military in Dera Ismail Khan.

The TJP terror outfit has been behind some major attacks in Pakistan. On November 4, the TJP militants attacked the Pakistan Air Force's Mianwali Training Air Base, some 300 km from Lahore, damaging three grounded aircraft.

The terrorists have repeatedly attacked the security and military installations in Pakistan.

In September 2015, Taliban gunmen killed 29 people, including 16 worshippers in a mosque, when they stormed Badaber air base, close to the northwestern city of Peshawar.

In May 2011, 15 terrorists belonging to TTP and Al Qaeda attacked PNS Mehran, the headquarters of the Pakistan Navy's Naval Air Arm, located in Sindh and killed 18 military personnel and wounded 16. Two American-built surveillance aircraft were also destroyed.