Bomb blast near Pakistan border kills 6 police

Six policemen were killed in two deadly bomb attacks near the Afghan border in Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Three more policemen were injured in separate blasts on Monday (January 12), Anadolu Agency reported.
Six people were killed on the spot when a remote-controlled bomb exploded targeting an armoured police vehicle on Gomal Bazar Road in Tank district, officials said. On the same day, another attack on a police van in Lakki Marwat district injured three people, one of whom is in critical condition.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi strongly condemned the incident and paid tribute to the slain policemen. The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) launched operations in Peshawar, Bannu and Khyber districts of the province soon after the attacks.
At least eight armed men were killed in the operations and several sabotage plans were foiled, security forces claimed. Naqvi said that such a fight by security forces will continue to restore peace in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Although no group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far, the instability on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border has reached its peak in recent times. The two countries have been engaged in bloody clashes on the border since October last year. Pakistan claims that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is carrying out such attacks across the border from Afghanistan.
Pakistan has also alleged that the insurgent group is being supported by neighboring India with money and logistics. However, the Afghan Taliban government has been denying these allegations since the beginning.