Pakistan’s military said in a statement on Saturday morning that militants carried out a suicide bomb attack, killing five Pakistani security forces according to a Reuters report. The incident took place in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in an area bordering Afghanistan.
“The terrorists rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the post, followed by multiple suicide bombing attacks, which led to the collapse of a portion of a building, resulting into Shahadat (martyrdom) of five,” the statement said.
Though the Pakistani military has not named the terror group responsible, suspicion has fallen on the Afghan-based Pakistani Taliban, who have carried out similar attacks on Pakistan in the past few months. According to a VOA report, Pakistan’s Army Chief General Asim Munir was in Washington in December last year, where he sought the US’s help in dealing with terror groups such as the TTP or the Islamic State’s Khorasan offshoot (ISIS-K).
The TTP has soured relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan has accused Afghanistan’s Taliban, who currently run the country of aiding the military group, a charge that Afghanistan denies.
Pakistan and the TTP had a ceasefire in June 2022 that was brokered by the Afghan Taliban. But the ceasefire lasted only months with the TTP continuing attacks on Pakistan in November that same year. Another problem for Pakistan is the mass recruitment drive that the militant group has undertaken among the disaffected youth in Pakistan to lure them into jihad.
The problem has only grown worse for Pakistan with new offshoots of the group, such as the Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan (TJP) coming to the fore. In October 2023, the TJP attacked Pakistan’s air training base in Mianwali. Pakistan’s military said in a statement that the attack was foiled.
“Due to the swift and effective response by the troops, (the attack) has been foiled and thwarted, ensuring the safety and security of personnel and assets,” the military said in a statement. It added that three aircraft had been damaged in the attack.
Pakistan recently held elections in February this year also saw violence. CBS reports that twin bomb blasts in the country’s southwestern province of Balochistan killed 30 people. Seven security officers were also killed in two separate attacks
