Attack on Police Convoy in Pakistan Kills 6

VOA News
24 May 2013 (10:41PM)

A militant attack on a police convoy near the city of Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan has killed at least six policemen.

Several others, including the district police officer, were wounded in the attack Friday on the Indus Highway. Local media say the militants armed with rockets ambushed the convoy, which was on its way from Peshawar to Kohat.

A wounded driver was able to reach Kohat with the police official, where they were taken to a hospital. A police contingent was sent to the area after the attack.

Earlier Friday, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a convoy of NATO containers in northwestern Pakistan, killing a driver and wounding another person.

Local tribal police official Khan Dad said the gunmen opened fire from the nearby mountains as the convoy entered Pakistan from Afghanistan in the troubled Khyber region.

The convoy was heading for the port city of Karachi.

Militant attacks are common in northwestern Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt near the border with Afghanistan.

Pakistan is a key transit route for the NATO mission in Afghanistan, from where supplies are driven to the border from the Arabian Sea port of Karachi.

In Peshawar, a suicide bomber attacked the vehicle of a religious leader Friday, killing three people.

Authorities say the leader, Haji Hayatullah, was not in the vehicle when it was attacked. His driver, a bodyguard and a passerby were killed in the blast.

No one has claimed responsibility.