At least six Pakistani security personnel were killed and seven wounded on Saturday in an exchange of fire with militants in the Kurram district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Armed men 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 occurred in the same region where sectarian clashes have killed at least 130 people during the past few weeks.
A ceasefire between the area’s Sunni and Shiite communities is holding and Saturday’s incident is not connected to the recent clashes, according to AP.
Local official Saleem Khan said armed men attacked a Frontier Corps checkpoint in Bagam, 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Peshawar city. The wounded were taken to a military hospital. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Last month, separatists fired 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 terrorists attacked a border post manned by the Frontier Corps Balochistan in Kalat district, killing seven soldiers and wounding 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, notably Punjabis. Militants have targeted energy projects with foreign financing — most notably from China — accusing outsiders of exploiting the resource-rich region while excluding residents in the poorest part of the country.
