Couple killed in suicide bombing in northwest Pakistan

Islamabad, Aug. 7 (EFE).- A married couple was killed on Monday as a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden car in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa district, apparently becoming victims of an attempted attack against a bomb disposal squad nearby.

The assailant was also killed in the bombing, as his car detonated next to the vehicle being driven by the couple.

“As per initial investigation the suicide bomber prematurely detonated his explosives while targeting a bomb disposal team but the blast killed a man and his wife who were travelling in another car nearby,” Hashmat Khan, a local administrator told EFE on Monday.

The official said that officers of the bomb disposal unit escaped unhurt in the incident.

The attack comes a day after a police official was killed while another was injured as their mobile squad in Peshawar’s Badhaber area was attacked by militants.

In a statement, the outlawed Pakistani Taliban faction, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack.No one has claimed responsibility for the Monday attack as yet.

The TTP has stepped up its attacks on security forces since the Afghan Taliban seized the government in Kabul in August 2021.

TTP, which is a separate group but shares ideology with the Afghan Taliban, has been fighting the central government in Islamabad to impose their own brand of shariah law since 2007.

Pakistani military launched a massive offensive in tribal belt of the country bordering Afghanistan in 2014.

Although Pakistani authorities had claimed that the region was cleared of rebels, in recent months locals have increasingly reported a return of fighters in the area.

Pakistan has accused the Afghan Taliban government for providing ‘safe havens’ to the TTP members but the Afghan Taliban, even though the group has steadily denied the allegations and asked Islamabad to furnish evidence in this regard. EFE

aa/ia