At least 19 members of security forces injured in suicide blast in northwest Pakistan

Peshawar: At least 19 members of Pakistan’s security forces were critically injured on Saturday when a suicide bomber with an explosive-laden motorcycle targeted their convoy in the restive tribal district in northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, an official said.

The security forces’ convoy were travelling to Asman Manza area of South Waziristan from DI Khan in Khyber Paktunkhwa province, when the suicide bomber attacked them, BDS (Bomb Disposal Squad) in-charge Inayayatullah Tiger said.

The condition of two members of the security forces is said to be critical, he said.

The entire area has been cordoned off and Pakistan’s law-enforcement agencies have launched an investigation into the attack.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

On Wednesday, two soldiers were among four people, when a suicide bomber with an explosive-laden car targeted a security checkpoint in the Datta Khel Bazar in north Waziristan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Saturday’s attack took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan and is a former stronghold of the militant Pakistani Taliban group, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP.

On January 30, a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up during the afternoon prayers in a mosque in Peshawar, killing 101 people and injuring more than 200 others. Pakistan has been hit by a wave of terrorism, mostly in the country’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, but also in Balochistan, the Punjab town of Mianwali, which borders the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and in the Sindh province.

In November last year, the TTP called off an indefinite ceasefire agreed with the government in June 2022 and ordered its militants to carry out attacks on the security forces. Pakistan hoped that the Afghan Taliban after coming to power would stop the use of their soil against Pakistan by expelling the TTP operatives, but they have apparently refused to do so at the cost of straining ties with Islamabad.

The TTP, set up as an umbrella group of several militant outfits in 2007, called off a ceasefire with the federal government and ordered its militants to stage terrorist attacks across the country.

The group, which is believed to be close to Al-Qaeda, has been blamed for several deadly attacks across Pakistan, including an attack on army headquarters in 2009, assaults on military bases, and the 2008 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.

The TTP has also orchestrated the heinous Army Public School attack in Peshawar in 2014, in which over 130 students were killed.