Gunmen kidnap seven Pakistani police in Punjab raid

LAHORE AND PESHAWAR // Dozens of gunmen from criminal gangs kidnapped seven Pakistani police from a checkpoint in the normally peaceful province of Punjab yesterday.

The kidnapping, and further fighting between insurgents and the military in the north-west of the country, underscored the extent of security problems facing prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Yesterday’s attack by gunmen from different gangs targeted a police checkpoint in Obaro, inside Punjab but at the junction of three provinces. “We have launched a rescue operation,” said district police officer Sohail Chatha.

Meanwhile, a statement from Mr Sharif’s office said he took “serious notice” of the kidnappings.

Police in Pakistan are poorly trained, paid and equipped. But rather than instituting reforms, Mr Sharif’s government has handed much of the responsibility for security to the country’s powerful military, which has a history of mounting coups and is frequently accused of extrajudicial killings.

In separate developments, the military said air strikes killed 44 insurgents on Saturday in Khyber and North Waziristan, two remote, mountainous north-western areas bordering Afghanistan.

The military also said five soldiers and 27 militants were killed in fighting in Khyber on Thursday. Residents and officials con- firmed at least nine deaths from the bombing in Tirah and seven in North Waziristan. “Two fighter jets started bombing in Tirah valley on Saturday morning for two hours,” said 58-year old tribal elder Sakhi Jan.