A devastating roadside bomb attack targeted a police vehicle in Hangu, a city in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border, on Friday. The explosion claimed the lives of a city police chief and two junior officers, according to local officials. The attack occurred as the officers were en route to a police station that had been assaulted less than an hour earlier, said Adam Khan, the local police chief. No further details were provided. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the incident, attributing it to the Pakistani Taliban, a group closely allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban, which regained power in Kabul in August 2021 following the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces. Pakistan has accused Afghanistan of harboring Pakistani Taliban militants who conduct cross-border attacks, a claim Kabul denies. In a separate operation on the same day, Pakistani security forces raided a militant hideout in the Tank district, killing eight Pakistani Taliban militants, as stated in a military release. This surge in violence comes just ahead of a second round of peace talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan, scheduled to take place in Istanbul. The talks, brokered by Qatar and Turkey, follow an initial meeting in Doha on October 19, which aimed to address cross-border violence and establish a monitoring mechanism. Meanwhile, all border crossings between the two nations remain closed since October 13 due to recent clashes, significantly impacting trade. In another incident, insurgents in Pakistan’s Balochistan province kidnapped 13 construction workers in the Khuzdar district, according to local police.