Pakistani officials have confirmed that four members of a paramilitary force were killed and seven others injured in a Taliban militant attack on a security checkpoint in the Kurram district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday, March 9.
According to a police official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, the attackers were “heavily armed,” and the ambush comes amid a sharp rise in militant activity across the province.
This latest incident follows a deadly car bombing last week near an army base in Bannu, where two suicide bombers from the Pakistani Taliban detonated a vehicle packed with explosives, killing seven soldiers and 13 civilians.
Tensions have been further heightened by a February 28 blast at the Haqqani Madrasa mosque in Akora, Nowshera, which killed seven people, including Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani, a senior figure in the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (S).
The Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad has reported a grim toll of violence, noting that 1,600 people were killed in attacks across Pakistan last year alone. The bulk of these attacks have been claimed by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), Baloch separatist groups, and Islamic State (IS) militants.
Pakistani authorities allege that militant groups are using Afghan territory as a safe haven to regroup and launch attacks. The Afghan Taliban government, however, denies these accusations, insisting that it does not allow Afghan soil to be used against other countries.
This ongoing cycle of violence poses serious challenges to regional security and further strains the already tense relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
