Gunmen kidnap 7 policemen in eastern Pakistan

Unidentified gunmen have abducted seven policemen after they launched a surprise attack against a security checkpoint in Pakistan’s eastern province of Punjab.

Local authorities, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Sunday that over two dozen armed stormed the post in Kacha area of Rahim Yar Khan district, located approximately 850 kilometers (527.00 miles) east of the capital, Islamabad, on Sunday.

The militants took away the hostages at gunpoint, and their fate as well as whereabouts remain unknown.

Officials have called for additional security measures to find the abducted police officers.

Meanwhile, Pakistani forces killed at least five militants who carried out a terror attack against a police convoy in the country’s southern port city of Karachi.

Senior Superintendent of Police Rao Anwar said the incident took place late on Saturday evening when a group of unknown militants attacked his convoy with grenades in the city.

“At least 10 unidentified terrorists opened fire and hurled hand grenades at my convoy, that was an attempt on my life but I escaped,” said Anwar.

Police officers riding in the convoy retaliated against the grenade attack and killed five of the assailants, while others were able to flee from the site.

According to local media, Anwar was not injured in the assault. There were no report of any officers being hurt.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far, but Anwar stated that the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a major terrorist group operating in the country, was behind the attack against his convoy.

The incident came just days after a Pakistani policeman was killed and two others injured in a bomb attack targeting the convoy of Aftab Khan Sherpao, Pakistan’s former interior minister and ex-minister of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

Sherpao said after the assault that this was his fourth time to escape an assassination attempt. 

The attack comes as Pakistan has intensified its anti-terror campaign following a December 16, 2014 attack on an army-run school in the city of Peshawar, which claimed the lives of about 150 people.

Violence has been increasing in Pakistan’s northwest tribal belt following the 2001 US-led invasion of neighboring Afghanistan.

Security forces and civilians have remained a constant target of the pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan.

Thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives in bombings and other militant attacks since 2001, when Pakistan entered an alliance with the US in the so-called war on terror. Thousands more have been displaced by the wave of violence and militancy sweeping across the country.

CAH/MP/MKA/HMV

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