Four security officers and two schoolchildren were killed in bomb and mortar attacks in northwestern Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying security forces in Pakistan’s restive northwest, killing four officers and wounding five others, officials said Thursday, and the same day it killed two schoolchildren elsewhere a mortar exploded near them. the northwest.

The roadside bomb attack took place on Wednesday in South Waziristan district, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, local police officer Dilawar Khan said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, except the… Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistanhas stepped up its attacks in the region since its ally the Afghan Taliban seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.

Later the same day on Wednesday, a mortar fired by insurgents landed near a road in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Tirah Valley, killing two schoolchildren who were walking to school, police said.

The Pakistani military has launched dozens of operations against the Pakistani Taliban and other insurgents in South Waziristan and other nearby former tribal areas, but the militants continue to carry out regular attacks.

On Thursday, Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met with Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong in Islamabad to brief him on an investigation into an attack Tuesday that shot and wounded a security guard. two Chinese nationals at a textile factory in the port city of Karachi, reportedly over a private dispute.

China has often demanded better security for its nationals who are in Pakistan to work for Beijing’s billions of dollars Belt and Road Initiative. An unknown number of Chinese also work in factories in the country.