PESHAWAR (Pakistan) - UNIDENTIFIED gunmen on Saturday shot dead two policemen in troubled north-western Pakistan, police said.
The attack took place in Hayatabad, on the outskirts of Peshawar and adjacent to Khyber tribal district, when snipers fired on the two policemen, who were riding a motorcycle, police said.
'They were fired upon from the nearby tribal area. Both policemen were martyred, one on the spot and second on his way to hospital' Mohammad Ijaz Khan, a senior police official in Peshawar, told AFP.
Officer Khan said the attackers fled the scene. Intelligence officials in Peshawar blamed Taleban militants for the attack.
Police have tightened security in the area after this week's start of Muharram, the first month of the new Islamic year, with patrols of Peshawar's outskirts seeking to prevent any sabotage.
Muharram, which began on Wednesday, sees tensions rise between Pakistan's majority Sunni and minority Shi'ite Muslim communities, and in previous years has been marked by attacks on Shi'ite religious parades.
Around 4,000 people have died in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan since government forces raided an extremist mosque in Islamabad in 2007. The attacks have been blamed on terror networks linked to the Taleban and Al-Qaeda. -- AFP
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