TTP militants gun down officer in Pakistan’s Peshawar
Pro-Taliban militants have shot and killed a senior counterterrorism police officer in the troubled northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Bahadur Khan, a senior official in Peshawar’s Counter Terrorism Department, was shot dead in the city, which is the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on Wednesday.
According to the provincial police chief, Nasir Durrani, two gunmen opened fire at the late officer’s car when he was on his way to drop off his daughter to school. Durrani said Khan succumbed to his injuries later in the day, after he was taken to the hospital.
The Pakistani militant group, known as Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, which was reportedly in retaliation for operations by the counterterrorism department against militants.
The attackers targeted the police officer and “fled after the shooting,” said the TTP spokesman, Muhammad Khorasani, in a statement.
Pakistan’s northwest tribal belt has witnessed violence following the 2001 US-led invasion of neighboring Afghanistan.
Peshawar and several other towns in the region have experienced a fresh wave of violence over the past few months. Militant attacks and bomb explosions have claimed the lives of many people across the volatile region.
In June 2014, the Pakistani army began a vast cleanup operation, called Zarb e-Azb, to fight pro-Taliban militant groups. The anti-terror campaign in Pakistan has gained momentum following a December 16, 2014 attack on an army-run school in Peshawar, which claimed the lives of 153 people, mainly children.
Security forces and civilians have remained a constant target of the pro-Taliban militants who are operating against the government in Islamabad.
MIS/HSN/GHN
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