Pakistani Taliban claim killing of police officer in Islamabad

The Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday claimed responsibility for an overnight gun attack on police in Islamabad that killed an officer and both assailants, raising fears insurgents have a presence in one of the country’s safest cities.

Mohammad Khurasani, the spokesman for the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, took to Twitter to claim responsibility for the attack in Pakistan’s capital. He said the TTP also targeted police in two separate attacks in the northwest a day earlier.

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There was no official confirmation of the militant attacks on police in the northwestern districts in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, Pakistan’s interior minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed attended the funeral of the police officer who was killed in Islamabad on Monday night. Ahmed said both of the slain militants involved in the attack had been identified.

Although militants often target security forces in Pakistan, the country’s capital has largely been peaceful in recent years. The Pakistani Taliban, who have been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, on Tuesday warned that they could carry out more attacks on security forces in the future.

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