Hangu: Death toll in an ambush on a security checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan has jumped to 11, police said on Thursday. The incident, the latest in a string of attacks on security forces, occurred in Hangu district of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghanistan border on Wednesday night, a statement from the provincial police headquarters said.

According to Anadolu Agency, another 28 cops were injured in the intense firing, while 15 attackers were also killed in retaliatory fire. City police chief Tariq Habib told reporters that a deputy superintendent of police was among the dead. The police accused "Fitna al Khawarij," a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), of carrying out the attack.

The TTP has long been involved in attacks on security forces and government installations in northwestern and southwestern Pakistan. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi strongly condemned the attack, offering his condolences to the families of the officials killed. Pakistan has seen a surge in attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwestern Balochistan provinces.