Pakistan: Two police personnel among seven killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa blast

Islamabad: At least seven people, including two police personnel, were killed in a blast in the Serai Naurang tehsil of Lakki Marwat district in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday, local media reported citing information received from the local police.

Quoting Lakki Marwat district police spokesperson, Pakistan’s leading daily Dawn reported that 23 other people have been injured in the incident.

He said that it was not clear whether a rickshaw carrying explosives was parked in the area or a suicide bomber detonated it. Experts from the Bomb Disposal Squad were working to determine the nature of the blast while the bodies of the deceased have been taken to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital while some of the injured were taken to hospitals in Bannu.

Videos that surfaced on social media platforms showed several shops and three-wheelers damaged in the blast. The police official said that a large police contingent reached at the site of the incident. The team cordoned off the area and gathered evidence, Dawn reported.

The incident occurred after at least 15 police personnel were killed in a suicide attack at a checkpoint in Bannu in the early hours of Sunday.

A militant outfit identified as Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan (IMP) claimed responsibility for that bombing through social media channels.

Reports suggest that between Saturday and Sunday night, the armed group rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the Fateh Khel police checkpoint in Bannu, reducing the structure to rubble in the massive blast.

According to police, the militants resorted to indiscriminate firing from multiple directions after the blast, resulting in hours of heavy gunfire, further explosions, and widespread panic across the area.

Bannu Regional Police Officer (RPO) Sajjad Khan said that a total of 18 police personnel were deployed at the checkpoint during the attack.

“Of them, 15 embraced martyrdom on the spot, while three sustained serious injuries,” Pakistani daily Express Tribune quoted the police official as saying.

The explosion also resulted in extensive damage to residential buildings and other structures in the vicinity.

Following the attack, an emergency was declared in all three major hospitals of Bannu, while Rescue 1122 teams reached the site and took the injured people and bodies of deceased people to hospital.

IANS