Gunmen stormed the house of a female police officer, killing her and four relatives, in an unusual attack in Hangu, Pakistan, police said yesterday.
The attack happened on Thursday night, a district just outside the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. Islamist militants and criminals are active in the area and they frequently attack male security officials.
However, women in such positions are rare in the conservative region and it appeared to be the first time one was directly targeted.
However, the motive was unclear, police officer Umar Draz Khan said.
The 50-year-old female officer, Shamshad Begum, had been in the police for several years. Her latest assignment was searching women at checkpoints. Her two sons, daughter and a daughter-in-law were also killed, Khan said.
Also yesterday, Afghan officials denied Pakistani claims that Afghan troops carried out a cross-border mortar attack that killed eight people in a Pakistani tribal region. NATO said its initial reports indicated foreign troops played no role, either.
The mortar shells hit Tity Mada Khel village in North Waziristan, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.
The dead included five men and three women, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. A total of 11 people were wounded.
“We never fired mortars outside our territory into Pakistan,” Saht Gul Hottak, a spokesman for the Afghan National Army commander in eastern Afghanistan, said yesterday.
Meanwhile, NATO said it had found no reports of its units conducting operations that led to cross-border strikes.
Reports of mortar attacks from Afghanistan causing casualties in Pakistan are rare.
The US has pressed Pakistan to launch an offensive against militants in North Waziristan, but the government has refused, saying its forces are stretched too thin in other parts of the tribal area.
Many analysts believe Pakistan is reluctant to target militants with whom it has historical ties and who could be useful allies in Afghanistan after US-led forces withdraw.
Given Pakistan’s reluctance, the US has relied heavily on drone attacks to target militants in North Waziristan.
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