Death toll in attack on Pakistani police rises to 12

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The death toll in a rocket launcher attack on police officers whose vehicle broke down in central Pakistan rose to 12 on Friday, police said.

Organised crime gangs have been active in the riverine border areas in southern Sindh and central Punjab provinces for decades, often making money through kidnapping for ransom.

“At least 12 police officers were killed and eight others injured in the attack,” police spokesman Saif Ali Wains told AFP.

Two police vehicles with a total of around 22 police officers were driving through the Rahim Yar Khan district of Punjab province on Thursday evening when one of the vehicles broke down due to light flooding.

Wains said the gang then used rocket launchers to target the stranded officers.

A police statement on Friday said the main perpetrator of the bloody attack was killed during a night-time operation.

“The operation will continue until the perpetrators are eliminated,” the statement said.

In the early 1990s, the military launched a large-scale operation against criminal gangs in Sindh, but they re-emerged after successive governments failed to maintain law and order in the province.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered “immediate and effective action” against the attackers, his office said in a statement on Thursday.

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