DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — A deadly roadside bombing in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province has killed seven police officers, underscoring the deepening crisis of militancy in the region and reigniting a bitter dispute between the provincial civilian government and the country’s powerful military over responsibility for the violence, according to The Nation.
The attack occurred Monday in the Tank district when a remote-controlled improvised explosive device detonated beside an armored police vehicle traveling from Gomal to Tank, about 25 kilometers from Kot Wali, police officials said. The blast flipped and destroyed the vehicle, killing five officers instantly. Two others later died of their injuries in hospital.
Among the dead was Station House Officer Ishaq, along with Assistant Sub-Inspector Sher Alam, constables Shafi, Hazrat Ali, Ehsanullah, and driver Majid. Images from the scene showed twisted metal scattered along the roadside, a stark reminder of the persistent threat faced by law enforcement in the province.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi praised the slain officers, saying they had “sacrificed their today for the peaceful future of the nation.” The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack, part of a broader resurgence of militant violence across KP.
Pakistan’s federal authorities have repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban of sheltering TTP militants, allegations Kabul denies. But within Pakistan, blame is increasingly being contested at home. KP’s provincial civilian government has openly accused the army of tacitly enabling militant groups for what it calls “strategic and vested interests,” a charge the military strongly rejects.
Provincial leaders have also voiced sharp opposition to further large-scale military operations in KP, arguing that more than 20 previous operations have failed to bring lasting peace. Instead, they say, such campaigns have caused widespread collateral damage, disproportionately killing civilians, including women, infants, and children while failing to dismantle militant networks.
“If two decades of military action have not delivered security,” provincial officials argue, “more of the same will only deepen suffering.”
Security forces cordoned off the blast site and launched a search operation for those responsible. In a separate incident the same day, another IED attack in Lakki Marwat injured three policemen, including a station house officer.
As terrorism tightens its grip once again on Pakistan’s northwest, the widening rift between civilian authorities and the military threatens to further complicate an already fragile fight against extremism with police officers and civilians increasingly caught in the crossfire.
