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In a grim illustration of escalating security failures across Pakistan, one law enforcement officer was killed, and three colleagues were abducted after heavily armed assailants overran a security checkpoint at Shah Almas Pir Pahari in the Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to local media reports.
District Police Officer Salahuddin Kundi confirmed that the armed assailants targeted the Shah Almas Pir Pahari post and opened fire, as reported by the Pakistan-based daily The Express Tribune. Following the raid, a large contingent of law enforcement personnel rushed to the spot. However, the armed assailants fled. The three abducted police personnel were safely recovered through efforts involving the police, tribal elders and the district administration. This violent assault underscores a relentless surge in militant violence targeting security personnel across Pakistan, with the restive provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan bearing the brunt of Islamabad's administrative collapse and inability to maintain public order. The prevailing lawlessness reflects a pattern of unchecked violence across the region. Earlier, on September 28, three traffic police personnel were killed after their mobile van was attacked by unidentified assailants in the Wazirabad Bazaar area of Tank district in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to a senior police official. District Police Officer Abdul Samad Khan stated that three traffic police personnel died on the spot after their mobile van came under attack by armed men, as reported by the Pakistan-based daily Dawn. He noted that the armed men had taken away the police vehicle, which was later recovered. He added that two passers-by were injured in the attack and taken to hospital for treatment. Compounding the security apparatus's failure to protect state installations, a separate incident occurred on September 26. At least 12 people lost their lives, and 35 others sustained injuries when a police checkpost in the province came under a bomb attack. The fatalities included nine men, two women and a child, according to Dawn. Official accounts revealed that an explosives-laden trolley was rammed into the Aman Mela police checkpost in Dera Ismail Khan's Darazinda tehsil. Dera Ismail Khan District Police Officer (DPO) Ziauddin Ahmed confirmed that it was a suicide blast. The explosion reduced a major portion of the checkpoint to rubble and completely demolished an adjacent residential structure. (ANI)
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