Seven Pakistani policemen were killed in a targeted bomb attack on their armoured vehicle on Monday, police in the northwestern Tank district said, as Islamabad grapples with a growing wave of militant violence.
Footage of the attack shows the destroyed remains of a vehicle, overturned on the side of the road.
In a statement, the Islamist militant group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack.
Tank's deputy police chief, Pervez Shah, said five police officers died on the spot after a remote-controlled bomb was detonated, while two others died in hospital.
"The brave police sacrificed their present for the peaceful future of the nation," Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said in a statement.
Pakistan's northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where Tank District is located, is facing a resurgence of militant violence, carried out mainly by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Pakistan has accused the Afghan Taliban of harboring TTP militants, saying they use Afghan territory to plan attacks on targets in Pakistan. Kabul has rejected the accusations, saying Pakistan's security is an internal matter.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are currently in a fragile truce after border clashes in October, which killed dozens of people – the heaviest fighting since the Taliban came to power in 2021.
Bonus video:
