UPDATE - Death toll from ‘suicide bombing’ rises to 6 in NW Pakistan as 2 more policemen die

UPDATE: CHANGE HL, NO CHANGE IN DECK , DEATHS TOLL INCREASES

By Islamuddin Sajid

ISLAMABAD (AA) – The death toll from a suspected suicide bombing in northwestern Pakistan climbed to six, including two suspected suicide bombers, as two more policemen succumbed to injuries in a hospital, officials said on Thursday.

The blasts by two suspected suicide bombers near the Tehsil administration complex in Bara Bazar of Khyber district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province killed four policemen and wounded eight others, including two civilians, according to an official.

“It was apparently a suicide bombing as officials also recovered two unknown bodies believed to be of suicide bombers,” Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for Rescue 1122, told Anadolu over the phone.

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.

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.

The Afghan Taliban interim administration on Wednesday, however, conveyed to Pakistan that Kabul will not allow anyone to use Afghan soil against another country.

Taliban's interim Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met Pakistan's Special Representative for Afghanistan Asif Durrani, who arrived in Kabul on Wednesday to discuss the latest security situation in the region.

Muttaqi said that Afghans "will never harm anyone; we will allow none to use our soil against another country; and our efforts will always be directed at working for regional security and stability."