PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A bomb planted in a parked motorbike exploded close to a police car in northwest Pakistan, killing not less than 5 folks and wounding 20 others Friday, police mentioned.
The explosion occurred in Dera Ismail Khan, a metropolis in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, police officer Gul Sher Khan mentioned.
The motorbike was parked close to a bus cease and the bomb was detonated remotely when a police bus carrying officers from town to the close by Takwara space handed by, Khan mentioned.
The entire {dead} had been locals, and the explosion on the busy cease wounded each civilians and police constables, he mentioned.
A rescue official, Bilal Faizi mentioned wounded had been moved to a close-by hospital, the place three of them had been in severe situation.
There was no rapid declare of duty from any group, however the suspicion is more likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, who’ve stepped up assaults on safety forces since 2022. Authorities say the insurgents have grow to be emboldened whereas dwelling brazenly in Afghanistan because the Taliban takeover of that nation in 2021.
Dera Ismail Khan is positioned close to the previous militant stronghold of South Waziristan, a former sanctuary for militants.
Pakistan’s military carried out huge operations towards militants in tribal areas alongside the Afghan border after a military run faculty was attacked by militants killing greater than 150. Largely faculty youngsters in 2014.
The military years in the past introduced that it had cleared the area of native and overseas militants. Occasional assaults have continued, nevertheless, elevating issues that the native Taliban, often called Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, are regrouping within the space.
The Pakistani Taliban are a separate group however allies of the Afghan Taliban, who seized energy in Afghanistan in 2021 because the U.S. and NATO troops had been within the ultimate levels of their pullout.