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ISLAMABAD – One person suicide bomber targeting a security checkpoint to the northwest Pakistan on Wednesday (24/5/2023). The action killed two soldiers, a policeman and a civilian, security officials said.
This incident is the second attack to hit Pakistan in recent days. “A number of civilians were also injured in the attack,” said Rehmat Khan, a local police official, as quoted by Al Arabiya.
The bombing took place in North Waziristan, a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which borders Afghanistan and is a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban militant group. The group is also known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but suspicion has most likely fallen on the Pakistani Taliban.
In the past six months, the TTP has stepped up its attacks since unilaterally ending a ceasefire with the Pakistani government, brokered by neighboring Afghanistan last year.
The TTP also reportedly claimed responsibility for an attack the day before on an oil and gas factory in Hangu, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on the border with Afghanistan. Four security forces and two bodyguards were killed in an attack on a facility run by the European multinational company, MOL Pakistan Oil and Gas.
Despite being a separate group, the TTP remains a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who took control of Afghanistan in August 2021 following the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from the country after two decades of war. The takeover has, according to some, emboldened the TTP in Pakistan.
(esn)
