DHAKA: Dozens of gunmen from criminal gangs kidnapped seven Pakistani police from a checkpoint in the normally peaceful province of Punjab on Sunday.

Officials said, reports The Straits Times.

The kidnapping, and further fighting between insurgents and the military in the northwest of the country, underscored the range of security problems facing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. 

Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation of 180 million, is beset by a Taliban Islamist insurgency in the northwest and a separatist insurgency in the west. Murders, kidnappings and extortion by criminal gangs are common. Sectarian violence is growing. 

Sunday’s attack, by gunmen from different gangs, targeted a police checkpoint in Obaro, inside Punjab but at the intersection of three provinces, said district police officer Sohail Chatha.

BDST: 1817 HRS, MAY 03, 2015
RR