Six police officers killed in Pakistan in gun and suicide attacks on day of violence

Second incident sees bomb explode at police station in the Bara neighbourhood

Pakistani police at a checkpoint in Peshawar on Wednesday. AP

Pakistani Taliban shot and killed two police officers and wounded two others in a gun attack at a roadside checkpoint in Peshawar, police said on Thursday, hours before two suicide bombers killed at least four police officers and wounded 11 others, in the latest violence in the restive north-western region bordering Afghanistan.

The first attack took place overnight in the Regi Model Town neighbourhood, police chief Arshad Khan said. A search operation was launched in an effort to trace and arrest the attackers, who fled the scene under cover of darkness, he said.

The second attack happened in the Bara neighbourhood bordering Afghanistan where rescuers said a building collapsed after the bombing, burying a police officer whose body was later retrieved.

The explosive vest worn by one of the suicide bombers detonated when police opened fire after coming under attack, provincial police chief Akhtar Hayat said.

Gunshots were heard after the bombing, said Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for the provincial emergency service, and an exchange of gunfire followed.

The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The latest attacks comes two days after a suicide car bomber wounded six soldiers and two civilians by targeting a truck carrying security forces in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The TTP group has been behind a rising number of attacks against the state after it revoked a ceasefire and peace talks with the government in Islamabad collapsed in November.

Critics of the government say the talks allowed the release from prison of hundreds of the militants and their leaders, enabling them to regroup.

While sharing ideology and strong ties with its Afghan counterpart, TTP is a separate group to the rulers of Kabul, who seized power in the neighbouring country in August 2021 as US and Nato troops were in the final stages of their pullout.

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has emboldened the Pakistani militants, who have stepped up attacks on police and troops in recent months.

In 2017, the army tried to stamp out the movement, sending tens of thousands of troops into the mountainous area, many parts of which are barely accessible by road.

Nearly 900 troops and, by the army’s estimate, 2,000 Taliban were killed in two years of fighting.

Pakistan's army released a statement earlier this month warning Afghanistan that it would not tolerate the country harbouring militants, following a series of deadly clashes between soldiers and the Taliban that left 12 security forces dead.

"The sanctuaries and liberty of action available to the terrorists of proscribed TTP and other groups of that ilk in a neighbouring country and availability of latest weapons to the terrorists were noted as major reasons impacting the security of Pakistan," the statement said.