Pakistan: Suicide attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 10 soldiers killed, 18 people killed in 24 hours

On Tuesday, 10 soldiers were killed and 7 others were seriously injured in a suicide attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of northwestern Pakistan. The Hafiz Gul Bahadur armed group has claimed responsibility for the attack. A day earlier on Monday, 8 soldiers were killed in a violent clash in the same area bordering Afghanistan. The death of 18 soldiers in the last 24 hours has created panic. There is an atmosphere of panic among the people due to the continuous attacks.

An intelligence officer told about the attack in Bannu on Tuesday that a suspected suicide bomber blew up a vehicle filled with explosives near the checkpoint. After which his companions started firing. In which 10 people were killed and seven were injured in the attack. Along with this, police vehicles were also damaged.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to the official, eight soldiers and nine terrorists were killed in a violent clash in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack. TTP had said that it was in response to a search operation by security forces targeting one of its fighters.

Seven policemen were taken hostage.

Seven policemen were taken hostage on Monday after the blast near a checkpoint in Bannu, although they were released sometime later. According to senior police officer Mohammad Ziauddin, the release of all the policemen happened after successful negotiations between local elders and terrorists.

Both groups are supporters of the Taliban

The TTP is different from the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, but both were active in supporting the Afghan Taliban in their war against the US-led NATO coalition since 2001. The Afghan Taliban gained power in Kabul in 2021 and violence has erupted in Pakistan's border areas since then.

The TTP claimed an attack in late October that killed ten police officers at a check post in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In Pakistan's southwest, separatist fighters from the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) group killed seven soldiers at a border post on Saturday. The incident came a week after 26 people, including 14 soldiers, were killed in a bomb blast by the same group at a railway station in the provincial capital Quetta.