Death toll rises to 12 in rocket attack on Pakistani police

The death toll in a rocket attack on unlucky police officers in central Pakistan rose to 12 on Friday, police said.

Organized criminal gangs have been active in the riverine areas of the southern provinces of Sindh and Punjab for decades, often making money through kidnapping and ransom.

For the latest news, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

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

Two police vehicles carrying 22 police officers were driving through Rahim Yar Khan district in Punjab province on Thursday evening when one of the vehicles was damaged by minor flooding.

According to Wains, the gang then used rocket launchers to attack the stranded officers.

According to a police statement on Friday, the main culprit behind the bloody attack was killed in a night-time operation.

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

In the early 1990s, the army launched a large-scale operation against criminal gangs in Sindh, but they resurfaced 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.

Read more:

Assaulters attack and kill 11 police officers in East Pakistan, officials say

Two children killed in school bus massacre in Pakistan

Pakistani man charged with cyberterrorism over misinformation that sparked riots in UK