Pakistani Taliban Kills 3 Police Officer in Separate Attacks

Three police officers were slain in attacks claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, while three assailants were also killed, the terrorist group and Pakistani officials reported on Tuesday.

Separate strikes in the Dir and North Waziristan areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, killed two more police officers and one Pakistani Taliban fighter on Monday in the capital Islamabad.

Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Pakistan's Interior Minister, attended the funeral of the Islamabad officer today. The bombings highlight the difficulty of Pakistan's reconciliation with Afghanistan's newly successful Taliban regime.

Pakistan has long been accused of providing clandestine support to the Taliban north of the border, and Prime Minister Imran Khan recently lauded the Taliban's victory of Kabul after defeating the US occupation last August as "breaking the chains of slavery."

Since then, he has convened regional summits on reconstructing the country, which have been attended by Russia and China but boycotted by Western countries; nonetheless, Pakistan's own Taliban has been banned and continues to carry out terror acts.