Police pledged further action after armed men opened fire on officers returning from an operation against illegal gold mining in northwestern Pakistan on 11 November.
Police in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said the officers were returning from a mine in the Gumbat area of Kohat district after an operation against illegal gold mining when gunmen opened fire on 11 November 2026. The provincial police said 10 officers and 18 fighters were killed, and 12 officers were wounded.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility hours later. The group, formerly known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is separate from but closely allied with the Afghan Taliban, who returned to power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021. The TTP has stepped up attacks on security forces in the region in recent months.
The News reports that cross-border militant incidents in Pakistan have risen sharply since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
Authorities said at least 11 police officers were killed in the Kohat ambush, Al Jazeera reported, citing a higher toll than the 10 deaths previously reported by provincial police.
A senior Kohat administrative official told AFP that attackers burned two police vehicles and that two other police vehicles and one private vehicle were missing, Al Jazeera said. A local emergency-service spokesperson said rescue workers were treating wounded officers.
A senior administrative official in Kohat’s Orakzai area separately said 10 Pakistani Taliban fighters were killed in another operation in the district. That figure is not part of the reported attack toll.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of sheltering TTP fighters; the government in Kabul denies the allegation.
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Update ·
The update adds a higher reported police death toll.
