At least five people were killed and several others injured in a suicide car bomb terror attack targeting a police station in northwestern Pakistan, officials said on Friday.
A suicide bomber attempted to ram an explosives-laden vehicle into a police station in the Domel administrative subdivision of Bannu District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province late on Thursday, triggering a powerful blast that caused significant damage to nearby homes, police spokesperson Asif Hassan told Anadolu over the phone.
“Five people, including three women, one child and one man, have been martyred so far,” Hassan said, adding that security forces fired on the car and killed the driver before he could reach the police compound, but the car exploded.
He added that five police officers and several civilians were injured in the attack.
The explosion damaged at least two houses, and the injured were transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Security forces and rescue teams rushed to the scene and cordoned off the area, while investigations into the attack are under way.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but such attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are often attributed to terror groups targeting security forces.
In recent years, Pakistan has seen a rise in terrorism, with bombings and attacks targeting security personnel, law enforcement and government installations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces bordering Afghanistan.
Several armed groups are operating in the conflict-affected region, with many terror attacks claimed by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and affiliated groups targeting Pakistani forces.
Islamabad accuses the Afghan Taliban government of providing shelter to the TTP which has ramped up deadly cross-border attacks in Pakistan in recent years. Kabul denies the claims.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have been engaged in weeks of border conflict since February. The two neighbours’ delegations met for talks in China this week to bring an end to the conflict.
