Authorities in northwestern Pakistan said twin suicide bombings killed at least three police officers Thursday and wounded 10 others in a volatile district bordering Afghanistan.
Police in Khyber in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said the attackers targeted a government compound, which houses district police headquarters.
A senior police official said two suicide bombers detonated explosives strapped to their bodies when security forces intercepted them at the main entrance to the building and near the back wall. He added that the blast destroyed a gate and parts of the compound. The official said that he fears the death toll could rise.
In a statement sent to journalists, the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, claimed responsibility for the attack. The bombing came hours after an overnight attack in which militants, armed with assault rifles, shot up a roadside police post in the provincial capital of Peshawar, killing at least two security personnel and wounding as many others.
The TTP has claimed responsibility for that deadly shooting, as well.
Tuesday, a TTP suicide car bomber targeted a truck carrying security forces in Peshawar, wounding six soldiers and two civilians.
Security personnel gather at the site of the bomb blast in Hayatabad area of Peshawar on July 18, 2023.
The militant outfit and other insurgent groups have recently increased attacks against Pakistani security forces, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwestern Baluchistan province, bordering Afghanistan.
The violence has reportedly claimed the lives of more than 400 Pakistanis, mostly security forces, nationwide since the start of the year. Those killed include nearly 120 army officers and soldiers.
Islamabad alleges that fugitive TTP commanders and their associates are orchestrating terrorist attacks out of sanctuaries in Afghanistan. Pakistani leaders have pressed the country’s Taliban rulers to rein in the militants.
Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s special representative on Afghanistan, is currently visiting Kabul and raised the security issue with Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in a meeting late Wednesday.
The Taliban-led Foreign Ministry on Twitter quoted Muttaqi as telling Durrani that “Afghans will never harm anyone; we will allow none to use our soil against another country; & our efforts will always be directed at working for regional security & stability.”
TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, is an offshoot and known ally of the Afghan Taliban. The United States has outlawed the Pakistani Taliban as a global terrorist organization.
The group is believed to have moved its operational bases to Afghanistan since the former insurgent Taliban seized control of the country in August 2021, days before the United States and NATO allies withdrew all their troops, ending nearly two decades of involvement in the Afghan war.