Gunmen attack police escorting judges in northwest Pakistan, killing 2 policemen. Judges are safe

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Unidentified assailants on Friday opened fire on police officers escorting a vehicle that was carrying three judges in Pakistan’s northwest on Friday, killing two officers, police said. The judges escaped unharmed in the attack which was the second one this week in the region.

Local police chief Salam Khan said the attack happened in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where Pakistan staff working for a U.N. development agency escaped unharmed Wednesday after unidentified gunmen opened fire on their bulletproof vehicle.

No one has claimed responsibility for the latest and previous attack on the U.N. vehicle.

The motive behind the attack was not immediately clear.

The judges whose vehicle was the apparent target of the attack have been hearing multiple cases, ranging from robbery to acts of terrorism in the region, police said.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks, mostly in the northwest, in recent years.

Authorities have blamed the Pakistani Taliban for most previous attacks.

The insurgents, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, are a separate group but an ally of the Afghan Taliban. The group has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.