MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber targeted a security checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing two soldiers, a policeman and a civilian.
This was the second attack on Pakistan in as many days.
The blast occurred in North Waziristan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan and is a former stronghold of the militant Pakistani Taliban group, also known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP.
According to a local police official, Rahmat Khan, several civilians were also injured in the attack.
No one has accepted the responsibility of the attack, but it is being suspected that the Pakistani Taliban are involved in this attack.
In the past six months, the TTP has stepped up its attacks since it unilaterally ended a ceasefire with the Pakistani government brokered by neighboring Afghanistan last year.
Also on Wednesday, the TTP claimed responsibility for yesterday’s attack on an oil and gas plant in Hangu, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan. Four security personnel and two private guards were killed in an attack on a facility operated by MOL Pakistan Oil and Gas, a European multinational company.
Although a separate group, the TTP is a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, which took over Afghanistan in August 2021 following the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from the country after two decades of war. Some say the occupation has encouraged the TTP in Pakistan.
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