Gunmen killed four members of the Pakistani security forces and their driver in an attack in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police said on Sunday.
Their vehicle was 鈥榯argeted by armed militants鈥� and caught fire during the shootout on Saturday, a local police official said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. Jihadist and separatist groups regularly target the army and police along the mountainous border with Afghanistan.
The latest attack came after separatist militants killed 18 paramilitaries in an ambush in volatile southwest Balochistan province overnight Friday and Saturday.
The ambush was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army, which has frequently carried out deadly attacks on security forces or Pakistanis from other provinces.
Violence has surged in Pakistan鈥檚 border regions since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021.
Pakistan has accused the Taliban government of failing to root out militants who launch attacks from Afghan soil, a charge it denies.
More than 1,600 people were killed in attacks in Pakistan in 2024 鈥� the deadliest year in almost a decade 鈥� including 685 civil and military security forces, according to the Centre for Research and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based analysis group.
