The Pakistani Taliban declared an end to the truce on Thursday after accusing the government of reneging on its promises

Pakistani Taliban claim 2 policemen killed after truce

AP/K.M. CHAUDARY - Supporters of Tehreek-e-Labiak Pakistan, a radical Islamist political party, pray as they block a road during a sit-in protest against the arrest of their party leader Saad Rizvi.

EFE

11 de diciembre de 2021 (12:34 h.)

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The Pakistani Taliban on Saturday claimed responsibility for the deaths of two policemen protecting a polio vaccination team in northwest Pakistan, while the authorities acknowledge only one death, two days after the group ended a ceasefire with the government.

"Today, fighters of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, the main Pakistani Taliban group) killed two policemen in the Chadrar area" in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, a spokesman for the group, Muhammed Khurasani, said in a statement.

The source, speaking to Efe, confirmed that this is the first attack since the group ended the truce reached a month ago with the Pakistani government.

Police told Efe that the incident took place this morning, after the start of a five-day polio vaccination campaign last Friday.

The Pakistani government announced on 8 November that it had signed a ceasefire agreement with the TTP, with the Afghan Taliban as mediators.

The Pakistani Taliban declared an end to the truce on Thursday after accusing the government of reneging on promises to release more than 100 imprisoned fighters.

Mufti Noor Wali Mahsud, the TTP chief, called on his fighters to resume attacks against the Pakistani authorities yesterday.

Terrorist violence has declined markedly in Pakistan since the army launched an operation in the northwestern tribal areas in June 2014, which it later extended to the rest of the country, weakening the TTP.

But in recent months with the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan and the Taliban taking control of the neighbouring country in August, the TTP intensified its activities, especially in the country's tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.

According to data issued by the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, the TTP carried out a total of 95 attacks last year, in which 140 people were killed.

In addition, armed attacks by fundamentalist groups targeting polio vaccinators and their escorts are frequent in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the latter two countries where polio remains endemic.