Cop shot dead by suspected militants in northwest Pakistan amid wave of police killings

Security personnel search for documents at a checkpoint during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in Peshawar on March 14, 2024. (AFP/File)

• Peshawar police say 55 officers killed in ambushes and targeted attacks this year
• Over 200 policemen killed in targeted killings and ambushes in the last two years

PESHAWAR: Unidentified gunmen on a motorbike shot dead a police officer headed to duty in the northwestern city of Peshawar early morning on Wednesday, police said, bringing the total number of officers killed in ambushes and targeted attacks to 55 this year.
The latest killings come at a time of renewed militant violence in Pakistan’s northwestern and southwestern regions, especially after the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) called off its fragile, months-long truce with the government in November 2022.
While no group immediately claimed responsibility for the latest killing, suspicion is likely to fall on the TTP, which has claimed dozens of recent attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the country’s militancy-ridden northwest.
“An Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Hajji Akbar Khan of Peshawar police was going on his motorcycle to duty in HayatAbad [neighborhood] when gunmen riding a motorbike shot him dead and fled the scene,” Zaffar Khan, a police officer at the Sarband Police Station, told Arab News.
The killing is part of a wave of attacks on policemen in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in recent weeks.
According to Muhammad Shabbir Khan, the police superintendent at the research wing of Peshawar police, over 200 policemen have been killed in targeted killings and ambushes by unidentified gunmen in the last two years.
“In 2024, almost 55 police personnel have been martyred in targeted killings so far,” Khan said.
“Similarly, last year, as many as 185 policemen were martyred in ambushes and targeted attacks elsewhere in KP.”
Last month, unidentified gunmen shot dead a policeman in the restive North Waziristan tribal district, while six people, including five officials of the customs department, were killed and another wounded when gunmen opened fire on their vehicle in the southern Dera Ismail Khan district in KP.
Both Pakistan and Afghanistan have traded blame in recent months over who is responsible for the recent spate of militant attacks in Pakistan. 
Islamabad says the attacks are launched mostly by TTP members who operate from safe havens in Afghanistan. Kabul denies this and blames Islamabad for not being able to handle its own security challenges.