PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Unidentified assailants opened fire on police officers escorting a vehicle carrying three judges in northwest Pakistan on Friday, killing two officers, according to the Associated Press. The judges escaped unharmed in the attack, which was the second this week in the region.
The attack occurred in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said local police chief Salam Khan. On Wednesday, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a bulletproof vehicle carrying U.N. development agency staff in the same district. The U.N. staff also escaped unharmed.
No group has claimed responsibility for either attack. The motive behind Friday’s attack remains unclear.
The judges targeted in the attack have been presiding over various cases, including those related to robbery and terrorism, police said.
In recent years, Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks, predominantly in the northwest. Authorities have blamed most of these attacks on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). While the TTP is a separate entity from the Afghan Taliban, the two groups are allies. The TTP has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.
