At least six Pakistani security personnel were killed and seven injured in a gunfight with militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Kurram district on Saturday.
Gunmen killed six Pakistani security personnel and wounded seven in a checkpoint attack in the country’s northwest, a police official told news agency AP.
The incident took place in the same region where at least 130 people have been killed in sectarian clashes over the past few weeks.
According to the AP, a truce between the Sunni and Shiite communities in the area remains in place and Saturday’s incident is not linked to recent clashes.
Local official Salim Khan said armed men attacked Frontier Corps Checkpoint in Bagam, 200 kilometers (125 mi) south of Peshawar city. The injured were taken to a military hospital. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Last month, separatists opened fire on a paramilitary border post in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, killing seven soldiers, local authorities said Saturday, a week after the same militant group killed 26 people at a railway station.
“Around 40 to 50 armed militants attacked a border post manned by Frontier Corps Balochistan in Kalat district, killing seven soldiers and injuring 15 others,” a local official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The BLA frequently claims deadly attacks against security forces or Pakistanis from other provinces, particularly Punjabis. Militants have targeted energy projects with foreign financing – particularly from China – accusing outsiders of exploiting the resource-rich region while excluding residents in the poorest part of the country.
