The Pakistani Taliban (TTP), comprising armed combatants, launched an ambush on policemen who had just completed an operation to stop illicit gold mining in the Kohat district of northwest Pakistan, murdering 10 of the policemen while wounding 12 others, with 18 of the attackers being killed in the encounter. In the course of the attack, militants torched two police cars and seized three others, but 10 additional TTP terrorists were later shot dead, with the recovery of a large number of weapons carried out during another operation. The attack is symptomatic of a general increase in militant attacks in the border region, which has placed immense strain on the relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan's Taliban government.