Militant attack kills six in Pakistan

Smouldering rubble at a police checkpoint in northwest Pakistan, after a militant group attacked the area overnight, killing six police officers.

A gunbattle ensued for several hours between police and the militants, according to officials on Monday morning.

Among the dead was a senior police officer who had been beheaded.

Seven more policemen are still missing.

Mohammad Nabi, an officer-in-charge of a paramilitary checkpoint a few kilometres from the attack, said he arrived in the area only to find it totally gutted.

He said he believed the militants set the police station and four police vehicles on fire before they escaped.

The United States and other Western allies, who give Pakistan billions of dollars in aid, have been pushing the South Asian nation to crack down harder on the Taliban, al Qaeda and other groups that have formed a complex web of militancy.

But Pakistan says Western criticism of its fight against militants is unjustified.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.