Six killed in attack on Hungarian energy firm in Pakistan

Six Pakistan security personnel were killed in an overnight siege by dozens of militants on a Hungarian-owned oil and gas exploration site, police and the energy firm said yesterday.

Pakistan has seen an increase in militancy since the Taliban returned to power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021, with attacks mostly targeting security forces and foreign interests accused of exploitation.

About 50 fighters attacked a site owned by the Budapest-headquartered MOL Group around midnight in the Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, district police chief Asif Bahadur told AFP.

"They were armed with light and heavy weapons and fired mortar shells, killing six security personnel at the main entrance" to the remote site near the Afghan border, said Bahadur.

The MOL Group confirmed the death toll but said none of its employees were killed.

Two wells near the attack site have "been temporarily shut down by remote access and the wells are now secured", it said in a statement.

Police said the dead included four members of the Frontier Constabulary, a paramilitary police assistance force, and two Pakistani security guards.