Gunmen open fire on a vehicle carrying UN staff in northwest Pakistan. No casualties

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Unidentified gunmen opened fire on a bulletproof vehicle carrying local staff working for a UN development agency in Pakistan's volatile northwest bordering Afghanistan on Tuesday, but no one was harmed, police said.

The attack on the vehicle of the United Nations Office for project services happened in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in the Khyber, said Abdul Salam, who is the district police chief there.

He said all the people were traveling in the vehicle are safe.

Salam said police have launched a search to trace and arrest those involved in the assault.

No one immediately claimed responsibility and the Pakistani Taliban in a statement said they were not behind the attack.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks, mostly in the northwest, in recent years.

Authorities have blamed the Pakistani Taliban for such previous attacks on security forces and civilians.

The insurgents, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, are a separate group but are an ally of the Afghan Taliban. The group has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.