Skip to content 
Search

Latest Stories

Pakistan Taliban warn of more attacks against police after Karachi raid

The police are often used on the frontline of Pakistan’s battle with the Taliban and are frequently a target of militants who accuse them of extra-judicial killings.

Pakistan Taliban warn of more attacks against police after Karachi raid

PAKISTAN'S Taliban has warned of more attacks against law enforcement officers, a day after four people were killed when a suicide squad stormed a police compound in Karachi.

The police are often used on the frontline of Pakistan's battle with the Taliban and are frequently a target of militants who accuse them of extra-judicial killings.

Last month, more than 80 officers were killed when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest at a mosque inside a police compound in the northwestern city of Peshawar, sparking criticism from some junior ranks, who said they were having to do the army's work.

"The policemen should stay away from our war with the slave army, otherwise the attacks on the safe havens of the top police officers will continue," Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said on Saturday (18) in an English-language statement.

"We want to warn the security agencies once again to stop martyring innocent prisoners in fake encounters otherwise the intensity of future attacks will be more severe."

On Friday (17) evening, a Taliban suicide squad stormed the sprawling Karachi Police Office compound in the southern port city, prompting an hours-long gun battle that ended when two of the attackers were shot dead and a third blew himself up.

Two police officers, an army ranger and a civilian sanitary worker died in the attack, officials said.

The tightly guarded compound in the heart of the city is home to dozens of administrative and residential buildings as well as hundreds of officers and their families.

A senior investigator said early findings indicate all three attackers were from northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the TTP's power base and site of the Peshawar blast less than three weeks ago.

"They entered into the police headquarters compound through the rear entrance which is used by the residents of the police colony," the investigator said on condition of anonymity.

Interior minister Rana Sanaullah told Samaa TV the assailants entered the compound after firing a rocket at the gate before seizing the main Karachi Police Office building and taking refuge on the roof.

The sound of gunfire and grenade blasts echoed through the neighbourhood for hours as security forces slowly made their way up five floors to end the siege.

The bullet-riddled stairwells gave evidence of the fierce gun battle that unfolded.

The TTP, which is separate from the Afghan Taliban but with a similar hardline Islamist ideology, emerged in Pakistan in 2007 and carried out a horrific wave of violence that was largely crushed by a military operation launched in late 2014.

But attacks - mostly targeting security forces - have been on the rise again since the Afghan Taliban seized control of Kabul in August 2021 and a shaky months-long ceasefire between the TTP and Islamabad ended in November last year.

"Eliminating terrorist outfits has unfortunately not been a priority of the state," political analyst Tauseef Ahmed Khan said.

"Such attacks will keep reoccurring until the state meaningfully and completely transforms its policy towards militancy and terrorism."

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has vowed to stamp out the violence.

"Pakistan will not only uproot terrorism but will kill the terrorists by bringing them to justice," he tweeted late Friday.

"This great nation is determined to end this evil forever."

Condemning the attack, State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States stands "firmly with the Pakistani people in the face of this terrorist attack".

"Violence is not the answer, and it must stop."

Investigators blamed an affiliate of the Pakistan Taliban for the January blast at the Peshawar police compound.

Provinces around the country announced they were on high alert after that attack, with checkpoints ramped up and extra security forces deployed.

"There's a general threat across the country, but there was no specific threat to this place," Sanaullah said of Friday's Karachi attack.

In their statement, the Taliban called the raid "a blessed martyrdom" and warned of more to come.

"This attack is a message to all the anti-Islamic security agencies of Pakistan... the army and police will be targeted at every important place until the way for implementation of the Islamic system in the country is paved," it said.

(AFP)

More For You

Modi set for UK visit to sign free trade agreement

FILE PHOTO: Keir Starmer (L) with Narendra Modi. (Photo: Getty Images)

Modi set for UK visit to sign free trade agreement

INDIA's prime minister Narendra Modi is likely to travel to the UK by the end of this month for a visit that could see both sides formally sign the landmark India-UK free trade agreement and explore ways to expand bilateral ties in the defence and security sphere, diplomatic sources said.

Both sides are in the process of finalising the dates for Modi's visit to the country by the end of July or the first part of August, they said.

Keep ReadingShow less
Rishi Sunak returns to Goldman Sachs, will donate salary to charity

Rishi Sunak. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Rishi Sunak returns to Goldman Sachs, will donate salary to charity

FORMER prime minister Rishi Sunak has returned to the banking world as senior adviser at Goldman Sachs group, with plans to donate his salary to the education charity he recently established with his wife Akshata Murty.

The US-headquartered multinational investment bank, where Sunak worked before entering politics, made the announcement on Tuesday (8) after the requisite 12-month period elapsed since the British Indian leader's ministerial term concluded following defeat in the general election on July 4 last year.

Keep ReadingShow less
 Post Office Horizon

A Post Office van parked outside the venue for the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry at Aldwych House on January 11, 2024 in London.

Getty Images

Post Office scandal linked to 13 suicides, says inquiry

Highlights:

 
     
  • Public inquiry finds up to 13 suicides linked to wrongful Post Office prosecutions.
  •  
  • Horizon IT system faults led to false accusations, financial ruin, and imprisonment.
  •  
  • Sir Wyn Williams says Post Office maintained a “fiction” of accurate data despite known faults.

A PUBLIC inquiry has found that up to 13 people may have taken their own lives after being wrongly accused of financial misconduct by the Post Office, in what is now described as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.

Keep ReadingShow less
UK ramps up drought response following driest spring

The EA has begun conducting more compliance checks on high-usage industries

Getty Images

UK ramps up drought response following driest spring since 1893

Key points

  • Spring 2025 was England’s driest and warmest in over 130 years
  • Reservoirs across England only 77% full, compared to 93% average
  • Environment Agency increases monitoring and drought planning
  • North-west England officially declared in drought

Water conservation measures stepped up ahead of summer

The UK government has increased efforts to manage water resources after confirming that England experienced its driest and warmest spring since 1893. The Environment Agency (EA) reported that reservoirs were on average only 77% full, significantly lower than the usual 93% for this time of year.

The announcement came after a National Drought Group meeting on Thursday, which reviewed the impact of continued dry weather on crops, canal navigation, and river flows. Poor grass growth and dry soil conditions were noted as threats to food production and livestock feed.

Keep ReadingShow less
Norman Tebbit

Following Thatcher’s third general election victory in 1987, Tebbit stepped back from frontline politics to care for his wife. (Photo: Getty Images)

Getty Images

Former minister, Thatcher ally Norman Tebbit dies at 94

Norman Tebbit, a close ally of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and a former Conservative Party cabinet minister, has died at the age of 94. His son William confirmed the news on Tuesday.

"At 11:15 pm on 7th July, 2025, Lord Tebbit died peacefully at home aged 94," William Tebbit said in a statement.

Keep ReadingShow less