A criminal gang attacked police vehicles with rocket launchers in central Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least nine officers, police said.
The two police vehicles were traveling through Rahim Yar Khan district in Punjab province when they came under attack in the evening.
“The bandits attacked the vehicles with rocket launchers after one of the vehicles in the convoy broke down,” said a statement from the inspector general’s office in Punjab.
“At least 9 policemen are martyred in the attack, while several policemen have been injured.”
Organized criminal gangs have been active in the riverine border areas of Sindh and Punjab provinces for decades, often making money through kidnap-for-ransom assaults.
The military launched a full-scale operation against them in Sindh in the early 1990s but they resurfaced after successive governments failed to maintain law and order in the province.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered “immediate and effective action” against the attackers, his office said in a statement.