Six killed in attack on Hungarian energy company in Pakistan | World News

Six Pakistani security personnel were killed in an overnight siege by dozens of militants at a Hungarian-owned oil and gas exploration site, Pakistani police said on Tuesday.

Militancy in Pakistan has increased since the Taliban returned to power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021, with attacks mainly targeting security forces and foreign interests accused of exploitation.

About 50 militants attacked a location owned by the Budapest-based MOL group around midnight, regional police chief Asif Bahadur told AFP.

“Carrying light and heavy weapons and firing mortar shells, they killed six security personnel at the main entrance to the remote site close to the Afghan border,” Bahadur said.

He said the dead included four members of the paramilitary Police Assistance Force border police and two guards from a Pakistani private security company.

“The exchange of fire lasted for more than an hour. The police forced the militants to flee,” Bahadur added.

He blamed the attack on a branch of Pakistan’s domestic Taliban movement – the most active militant group in the region – although no one has claimed responsibility.

Second District Police Officer Noor Wali Khan confirmed the attack and the death toll.

According to their website, MOL Group has been operating a subsidiary in Pakistan since 1999 and employs 400 people in the country.

“We are assessing the information,” a spokesman for the Hungarian embassy in Islamabad said, adding that no diplomatic action was planned.

MOL Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bahadur said the attackers came from the nearby North Waziristan region, which borders Afghanistan and has historically been a hotspot for militants.

During the US post-9/11 invasion of Afghanistan, the region became a prime target for drone strikes and Islamabad’s military offensive to route Islamist militants.

The Pakistani Taliban – known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) – was formed in 2007 by splinter fighters from the Afghan Taliban, who have focused their fighting on Islamabad in support of the US invasion.

On Monday, officials said two empty girls’ schools in the province were attacked overnight by militants, destroying nine classrooms, but there were no casualties. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.