Traffic collision kills 7 police officers in Pakistan’s SW

Islamabad (AP) — A head-on traffic collision in Pakistan’s southwest killed seven police officers who were returning home for the Eid holidays, an official said.

They died at the scene of the crash on a national highway in the Khuzdar area of Baluchistan province on Saturday night, according to police official Fahad Khoso.

Khoso said the collision was between the officers’ vehicle and a truck. The seven men had finished a course at police training college.

In a separate incident, a shootout in the country’s restive northwest killed two soldiers and eight militants.

The Pakistani army said late Saturday there was an intense exchange of fire between security forces and militants during the raid on a hideout in South Waziristan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Weapons and ammunition were recovered from the slain militants, the army said.

The country is seeing a rise in militant attacks since the end of a cease-fire last November between the banned group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the government.

The government said earlier this month it will carry out a massive anti-terrorist operation across the country to counter the wave of violence.