PESHAWAR: Unidentified gunmen have shot dead four policemen in Pakistan's northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, officials said yesterday. The gunmen opened fire on the duty officers late Saturday in a village in Kohat district, some 80 kilometers southwest of Peshawar. "Gunmen opened fire on their official vehicle from both sides of the road, all the four policemen died on the spot," Javed Iqbal, a district police officer in Kohat, told AFP.

A second police official in Kohat said the attackers fled during the darkness. No group has yet claimed responsibility. Violence across Pakistan has declined in recent years following a series of military offensives against insurgents in the northwestern border areas. But the remnants of militant groups are still able to carry out periodic bloody attacks, particularly in the northwest.