Kohat police attack: DSP among at least 10 policemen killed in ambush
Gunmen fired from hilltops on a police team heading to an illegal gold-mining raid between Kohat and Karak, killing at least 10 officers on Wednesday.
At least 10 policemen, including a deputy superintendent of police, were killed on Wednesday, 11 November, when militants ambushed a police convoy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kohat district. Xinhua and the Associated Press both put the toll at a minimum of 10, and the AP said the ambush turned into a long gunbattle.
What happened in Kohat
According to Minute Mirror, the police team was travelling through the Gambat area to carry out an operation against illegal gold mining in Darbokach and Jalandhar Banda, a stretch of hills between Kohat and Karak. The attackers opened fire from nearby hilltops, the paper reported, and five police vehicles were set on fire.
The officer killed was named as DSP Haider Zaman. A sub-inspector was also among the dead, Minute Mirror said.
Pakistan Observer described firing in several places at once, Gumbat, Darabo Kach and Jalandhar Banda, during the anti-mining raid. Its first sources counted four dead before the figure rose to at least 10, which shows how quickly the picture changed through the day. Officials had not given a final count when this story was published.
Who is behind it?
No group had claimed the attack at the time of writing. The AP noted that most militant violence in the north-west in recent years has been blamed on the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), a group separate from, but closely allied with, the Afghan Taliban. Until there is a claim or an official statement, the attackers should be treated as unidentified.
Why the gold-mining raid matters
The hills between Kohat and Karak have become a hotspot for illegal gold digging, and police operations there take officers into remote ground with little cover. Attackers firing from high ground is a pattern seen in earlier ambushes in Karak and Kohat, where vans carrying small teams have been hit on narrow roads.
This is one of the deadliest single attacks on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police this year. In July, a DSP and nine other policemen were killed in an attack in the Hangu area, according to reports at the time.
What to watch next
Expect a statement from KP police and the provincial government with the final toll and the names of the officers, funeral prayers at police lines in Kohat, and a search operation in the hills. We will update this story when the official figures are out.
