A senior police officer and 2 wanted Pakistani Taliban members were killed in a shootout, police say

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A senior police officer and two wanted Pakistani Taliban members died in an intense shootout set off when police raided a militant hideout early Tuesday in the country's northwest, a local police official said.

Two other police officers were wounded in the shootout early Tuesday in Mardan, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The local official, Hidayat Ullah, identified the slain police superintendent as Ijaz Khan, who led the raid.

The two Taliban members who were killed were being sought by police over their alleged connection to more than 20 past attacks on security forces and a monetary reward had been offered for any information leading to their arrest.

The Pakistani Taliban, who routinely target security forces in the northwest bordering Afghanistan, had no immediate comment.

The group known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP are separate from but allies of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were leaving the country.