The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for a deadly gun assault on police in Islamabad, as the country’s interior minister warned of the potential for further attacks in the capital.
“This is a signal for us that terrorist attacks have [now] been started in Islamabad and we should be alert," Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told journalists as he visited the scene of the incident on January 18.
In the overnight attack, two gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire on a police checkpoint, sparking a shoot-out that killed an officer and both assailants, police said.
Two policemen were also wounded.
Attacks on security forces in Islamabad are rare, although militants of the outlawed Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, and other groups often target security forces elsewhere in the country.
On January 14, a Pakistani soldier was killed in Pakistan’s restive northwest, bordering Afghanistan, in an attack claimed by the TTP.
