Suspected militants shoot at police officers in a vehicle in northwestern Pakistan, killing two officers

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Suspected militants riding a motorcycle opened fire on a vehicle carrying police officers in a former Pakistani Taliban stronghold on Thursday, killing two of them and wounding two others, police said.

The attack occurred in Tank, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on the border with Afghanistan, local police officer Sher Afzal said.

No group has claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which often targets security forces.

The TTP is banned in Pakistan. They are separate from but closely allied with the Afghan Taliban, who control neighboring Afghanistan.

The latest violence came a day after at least three people were killed in clashes between police and supporters of the banned right-wing group Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM), which authorities say supports the TTP, in the northwestern town of Jamrud.

The government has also banned PTM from holding rallies in the northwest, allegedly because the demonstrations are against Pakistan’s interests. PTM denies supporting the Pakistani Taliban and tensions rose on Thursday after the group vowed to defy the ban on its rallies.