At least 11 police personnel, including a deputy superintendent of police, were killed and 12 others injured on Wednesday when militants ambushed a police team in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kohat district, in one of the deadliest attacks on the province’s police in recent months.
The police team was travelling towards the Gumbat area of Kohat district to carry out an operation against illegal gold mining when it came under fire in the Darbokach Jalandhar Banda area, between Kohat and Karak, police spokesperson Muhammad Nauman Zeb said. A statement from the Rescue 1122 emergency service said the death toll had reached 11, while 12 personnel were injured.
The dead included Deputy Superintendent of Police Gambat Haider Zaman and Sub-Inspector Mukhtiar, Zeb confirmed. Early reports had put the toll at 10 before Rescue 1122 confirmed the higher figure. The injured were taken to hospital, and officials said a search operation was under way in the area.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi strongly condemned the attack, describing it as a nexus between criminal elements and terrorists. The governor’s office said the provincial government stood with the families of the dead and injured, and that those responsible would be brought to justice.
The ambush is the latest in a series of militant attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where security forces have faced a sustained campaign from armed groups. Police teams in the province have repeatedly been targeted while on patrol or on their way to operations, and the attack on a team heading for an anti-mining operation underlines how exposed such movements have become.
Illegal gold mining has become a persistent problem in parts of the province, and police operations against it have drawn retaliation before. Officials did not immediately say which group was behind Wednesday’s attack, and no group had claimed responsibility by the time the toll was confirmed.
The attack came on a day when the province was already under strain. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been under governor’s rule since the federal government suspended the provincial government on 11 October, and the security situation in the province’s southern districts, including Kohat, Karak and Tank, has remained fragile.
Funerals for the dead officers were expected to be held in their home districts, with police honours. Senior officers said the force would continue its operations against illegal mining and militancy in the region despite the losses.
The ambush is likely to renew questions about the protection given to police teams moving through remote areas, and about the scale of the militant threat in the province’s southern belt. For the families of the 11 dead, the immediate concern is the funerals and the support promised by the provincial government.
Police said further details would be released once the search operation in the Darbokach Jalandhar Banda area was complete, and urged people in the area to report any suspicious movement to the authorities.
