Terrorists kill 4 Pakistani cops, wound as many in midnight assault on police station

ISLAMABAD: A brazen terror attack on a police station in northwest Pakistan's Lakki Marwat district early Sunday left at least four cops dead and as many critically wounded, reprising the ferocity of last month's assault by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in which six policemen were killed.
Two groups of heavily armed terrorists, suspected to be from TTP, closed in on Burgai police station on the southern outskirts of Lakki Marwat from opposite sides around midnight and took on a contingent of more than 60 cops, district police spokesperson Shahid Hameed said.
The terrorists hurled hand grenades and fired rocket launchers, killing four of the policemen instantly and injuring several. The police traded gunfire with the terrorists for almost 45 minutes before they fled under the cover of darkness. The police station, located in a desolate part of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, is a 90-minute drive from the district headquarters of Lakki.
While no outfit had owned responsibility for the attack until late Sunday, the police suspect the banned TTP was responsible for it as the group is known to operate in the area.
Pakistan has seen a surge in terrorist attacks from the Afghan side of the border since the TTP called off its fragile ceasefire agreement with Pakistan on November 28, directing its fighters to carry out attacks across the country.
Islamabad has been urging Kabul to fulfil the commitments it made in Doha such as reining in terrorist groups and not allowing them to use Afghan soil as a launchpad for attacks.
Noor Wali Mehsud of TTP claimed that the militant network had been operating from within Pakistan. In an interview to American channel CNN, Mehsud said from an unknown location that the TTP networkhad been targeting Pakistani security forces from within its territory.
Early this month, Pakistan’s national counter-terrorism authority told a senate panel that the country settling for peace talks with the TTP had emboldened the proscribed outfit and allowed it to regroup.