A suicide bomber detonated a bomb-filled vehicle at a police checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan today, killing at least 17 people and wounding two dozen others. This was one of a growing number of terrorist attacks in the region bordering Afghanistan.
The attack occurred in Dera Ismail Khan, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The killed and wounded included both passersby and security personnel.
The Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, claimed responsibility for the attack. Pakistan has experienced a big increase in terrorist attacks in recent years, most of them claimed by the TTP and the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, a separatist group mainly active in neighboring Balochistan province.
The TTP is separate from but closely allied with the Afghan Taliban, which returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021 when U.S. troops withdrew.
Pakistani officials have repeatedly denounced the Afghan Taliban for letting TTP members to operate from Afghan soil and have demanded that Kabul prevent cross-border attacks into Pakistan. Afghan authorities have denied allowing their border region to be used for attacks against Pakistan.
The latest attack came two days after fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan along their southwestern border killed at least 13 Afghan Taliban. It was the latest escalation between the neighbors following Pakistani strikes on alleged militant hideouts inside Afghanistan this week. The renewed hostilities threaten mediation efforts by China, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia aimed at securing lasting peace between the two countries.
In February, a suicide bomber killed 31 people at a mosque in Pakistan’s capital.
The Iran War has forced Pakistani cities to go dark hours earlier than they used to, and has also led to blackouts, by cutting off most of the supply of natural gas from Iran to Pakistan.
An earthquake killed over 1000 people in Afghanistan last year.
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