PESHAWAR (AFP) – Dozens of militants waged an hours-long gun attack on a police station in northern Pakistan early yesterday, killing at least 10 officers, a senior commander said.
The assault comes just days before Pakistan votes in a general election that has already seen dozens of attacks on candidates and party supporters.
“More than 30 terrorists launched an attack from three directions,” Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial police chief Akhtar Hayat Gandapur told AFP.
“There was an exchange of fire for over two-and-a-half hours.”
He said 10 officers were killed and four wounded in the assault on Chaudhwan police station in Dera Ismail Khan district in the early hours of yesterday.
The border regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have for years seen Pakistan Taleban, Islamic State and other groups attacking government and security targets, as well as targeting civilians.
Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar “vehemently denounced” the attack.
“The entire nation stands with the police and security forces and salutes the martyrs,” he said.
A senior government official told AFP there was a “severe threat” in southern areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
