A high-intensity overnight raid by heavily armed militants on a police facility in northwestern Pakistan left 11 police personnel dead and over two dozen wounded, police and provincial authorities reported early Thursday.

In the ensuing hour-long gunfight, security forces retaliated and killed 15 attackers who targeted the Khazina police post situated in the Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province bordering Afghanistan, according to police official Irfan Khan.

While no armed faction immediately claimed responsibility for the deadly ambush, suspicion primarily targets Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an outlawed militant network that has significantly escalated its violent campaign against Pakistani law enforcement in border areas in recent months.

Official statements from provincial law enforcement confirmed that among the casualties was Senior Police Officer Diyar Khan, who lost his life while leading reinforcement units directly into the combat zone.

More than 24 additional officers sustained injuries of varying severity during the assault.

Police details revealed that the assailants utilized heavy weaponry to storm the facility. Reinforcements rushing to assist the station were targeted in a coordinated roadside ambush that crippled an armored personnel carrier before law enforcement personnel managed to return fire and engage the fighters.

At a medical facility in Hangu district, heavily armed police personnel carrying automatic weapons stood guard Thursday to secure the premises where wounded officers were undergoing emergency treatment.

The assault comes amid a severe resurgence of militant violence in Pakistan, largely driven by the TTP—an organization structurally distinct from but ideologically allied with the Afghan Taliban, who resumed power in neighboring Kabul in 2021.

Pakistani officials in Islamabad have persistently accused Afghanistan's Taliban administration of harboring cross-border TTP bases, a charge the regime in Kabul continues to deny.

Source: AP