Two Pakistani policemen were killed while guarding teams collecting statistical data in two separate attacks claimed by the local branch of the Taliban, the police said Tuesday.

Pakistan began a month-long digital census in early March, in which elements of the security forces were deployed, along with more than 120,000 employees assigned to the census.

And the police are increasingly at the forefront of the battle between the Pakistani authorities and the local Taliban, as security personnel are frequently targeted by insurgents who accuse them of carrying out extrajudicial killings.

On Monday, two teams were attacked in Khobar Khtunkhwa province, in two districts near the border with Afghanistan.

"Gunmen attacked the police team responsible for supervising the security of the census team from two sides," said Farooq Khan, a police official in Tank district, adding that one officer was killed and four wounded.

Later in the evening, the Pakistani military stated that a militant was killed in a "heavy exchange of fire".

In another attack, gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire at the police, killing one person and wounding three.

"Security measures have been intensified further, and the census process has resumed," Tariq Abdullah, an official in the Laki Marut district administration, told AFP.

The attacks followed another attack last week that took place in the same area and resulted in the death of an officer.

The Pakistani Taliban, which is separate from the Afghan Taliban, despite their ideological similarity, claimed responsibility for the three attacks.

"Our first target is the police, regardless of whether they are accompanying politicians, polio vaccination teams or enumeration teams," a leader of the Pakistani Taliban told AFP.

In January, more than 80 policemen were killed when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest in a mosque inside a police compound in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

In the framework of the census, demographic data is collected before the legislative elections expected by October.

Political parties and ethnic groups frequently criticize the census, pointing out that it is based on undercounting, data manipulation and other irregularities.