KARACHI, Pakistan

At least seven Pakistani policemen were abducted while eight suspected militants and a soldier were killed in hours-long clashes in the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, sources told Anadolu on Tuesday.

The suspected militants kidnapped seven policemen in Bannu district, near the restive North Waziristan tribal region that was once the fiefdom of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a conglomerate of several militant outfits that have been fighting security forces and law enforcement for nearly 18 years.

Efforts to recover the kidnapped cops are underway, Bannu City Police chief Ziauddin Ahmed Ahmed told Anadolu over the phone while confirming the incident occurred on Monday.

Pakistan has seen an uptick in terrorist attacks, mainly targeting its northwestern and southwestern regions over the past several months.

Meanwhile, clashes broke out in the restive Tirah valley of Khyber tribal district, which sits near the Afghanistan border, on Monday and Tuesday, killing eight members of the so-called Lashkar-e-Islam militant group, including its top commander Ameer Tayyeb, a police official told Anadolu, requesting not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Another five militants were also injured in the clashes, he added.

According to unconfirmed reports, eight police officers were killed in the clashes, but an official from Deputy Commissioner Khyber's office denied this.