By Staff Reporter
PESHAWAR: At least two people, including a child, were killed and 17 others wounded when a time bomb concealed in a motorcycle detonated near a police station in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday, police said.
The explosion ripped through an area in front of the Miryan Police Station in Bannu district, close to a row of shops, according to a police statement. No police officers were hurt, but civilians in the vicinity bore the brunt of the blast, with several of the injured listed in critical condition.
A medical official at the Medical Teaching Institution confirmed the casualties had been rushed to the District Headquarters Hospital and Khalifa Gul Nawaz Hospital in Bannu for treatment. Rescue 1122 teams were quickly on the scene, ferrying the dead and wounded to nearby facilities, a spokesman for the emergency service said. A large contingent of Bannu officers, along with the Bomb Disposal Squad and Quick Response Force, arrived within minutes. The zone was cordoned off as officers launched a search operation, collecting evidence and launching a full investigation, the statement added. The Bomb Disposal Squad worked to sweep the site “to ensure timely and effective prevention of any possible further threat,” it said.
Bannu district has seen a string of such attacks in recent months, part of a wider uptick in militant violence across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that has hit both civilians and security forces. In January, two boys were hurt in a blast in the Domel area of Bannu. One of them died two weeks later from his injuries. Earlier that month, the former nazim of Domel, Fida Muhammad Khan Wazir, was wounded in a bomb attack outside his office.
Violence has surged in the province since the Taliban swept back to power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021. Most of the assaults have targeted police and troops in the former tribal districts that hug the porous border. Pakistan accuses the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) of regrouping in safe havens across the frontier, a claim Kabul denies.
In a separate incident late on Sunday in Bajaur district, also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a suspected unexploded mortar shell blew up, killing one person and injuring nine others, including men, women and children. Senior police officer Anwar Zeb said the shell had been found by children, who took it home where it later detonated. A rescue team from Bajaur’s 1122 service was dispatched immediately to move the casualties to the nearest hospital, said Riaz Khan, a media officer with the service. Investigations into both blasts were continuing.
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