Eight dead and five injured in suicide bombings in West Pakistan

A suicide bomber exploded at a checkpoint in the western part of the country, killing eight people and wounding five others, officials said.

The bomber triggered the blast from the back of a motor rickshaw near the town of Mir Ali in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Saturday, a local police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Four police officers were killed alongside two members of a state paramilitary force and two civilians in the attack near the border with Afghanistan, he said.

Pakistan has seen a rise in militancy since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021, with Islamabad claiming hostile groups are now using the neighboring country as a refuge.

“Of the five injured, three persons are in critical condition and have been shifted to a local military hospital,” the police officer said.

A local government official who also asked not to be named confirmed the same number of deaths and injuries.

The attack was claimed by a little-known group calling itself “Aswad ul-Harb”.

Another checkpoint near the Afghan border was attacked by the Pakistani Taliban this week, killing 10 police officers.

There were more suicide bombings in the country last year than any year since 2014, according to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.

29 suicide bombings were recorded, killing 329 people in Pakistan’s deadliest year in a decade. —AFP