Caretaker PM Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar referred to as the incident “cowardly terrorist act”. (Representational)
Islamabad:
9 troopers have been killed in a restive western area of Pakistan on Thursday after a suicide bomber rammed his bike into their army convoy and detonated, the military and officers stated.
Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic uptick in militancy for the reason that Taliban returned to energy in neighbouring Afghanistan two years in the past, with assaults spiking alongside border areas.
A “bike borne suicide bomber exploded himself” in Pakistan’s Bannu district, 61 kilometres (38 miles) from the border, the military’s media wing stated.
The rugged border area has lengthy been a hive of militant exercise, with hardline organizations reminiscent of Pakistan’s home-grown Taliban group, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), utilizing the largely unpoliced border to evade detection and stage assaults.
“The suicide bomber was using a motorbike and he rammed his bike right into a truck in a army convoy,” provincial minister Feroze Jamal Shah advised AFP.
Pakistan’s military stated an additional 5 troopers have been injured within the assault close to the city of Jani Khel, nevertheless Shah put the determine at 20.
Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar referred to as the incident “a cowardly terrorist act”.
The TTP is the most important risk within the area and Islamabad has claimed its fighters are discovering secure haven in Afghanistan.
In latest months the group has waged a marketing campaign in opposition to safety officers, together with cops.
In January, a TTP-linked suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque inside a police compound within the northwestern metropolis of Peshawar, killing greater than 80 officers.
The Islamic State group has additionally been lively within the nation, claiming accountability for a suicide bombing final month that killed at the very least 54 individuals, together with 23 youngsters, at a political get together gathering.
Pakistan was as soon as tormented by virtually each day bombings, however a serious army clearance operation within the former tribal areas beginning in 2014 largely restored order.
The seven distant districts that border Afghanistan, of which Bannu is one, have been later introduced beneath the management of Pakistani authorities after the passage of laws in 2018.
Analysts say militants within the former tribal areas have turn out to be emboldened for the reason that return of Taliban authorities in Afghanistan.
Pakistan in the meantime is dealing with a worsening safety state of affairs, an financial downturn and political turmoil with elections for a brand new authorities due within the coming months, however no date but formally introduced.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)