2 policemen killed, several others injured in NW Pakistan 'suicide blasts'

By Islamuddin Sajid

ISLAMABAD (AA) – At least two policemen were killed and eight others, including two civilians, wounded in a suspected suicide bombing near a government building in the Khyber district in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, according to officials.

Two suspected suicide bombers exploded themselves near the Tehsil administration complex in Bara Bazar of Khyber district, Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for Rescue 1122, told Anadolu over the phone.

“It was apparently a suicide bombing as officials also recovered two unknown bodies believed to be of suicide bombers,” he said.

The blast also caused damage to the complex building where offices of local administration, including police, are located.

According to Faizi, rescue teams and police reached the spot and shifted all the injured to a nearby hospital.

The latest incident occurred just two days after a suicide bomber hit a truck carrying paramilitary forces in Peshawar city, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on Tuesday.

At least eight security personnel got injured in that attack.

Tehreek-i-Jihad Pakistan, a newly found group of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack on paramilitary forces.

Terror attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan province, bordering Afghanistan, rose in recent months as at least 12 Pakistani soldiers and seven militants were killed in two attacks and subsequent operations in the Zhob and Sui areas of Balochistan last week.

The latest wave of terrorism has increased tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan as Islamabad said the TTP militants have freedom of action across the border in Afghanistan and urged Kabul not to allow its soil to be used against any country.

The TTP is a conglomerate of several militant groups in Pakistan that Islamabad believes are currently inside Afghanistan.