PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber killed 12 members of the security forces and wounded several others after detonating an explosive-laden vehicle at a security post in northwestern Pakistan, officials said Wednesday.
The attack, one of the deadliest in recent months, happened Tuesday evening in Bannu, a district in restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
A military statement said six “khwarij” — a phrase which is used for Pakistani Taliban — were killed in a gunbattle at the scene.
“The attempt to enter the post was effectively thwarted by our own troops, which forced the khwarij to ram an explosive-laden vehicle into the perimeter wall of the post,” the statement said. The suicide attack led to the collapse of a portion of a perimeter wall and damaged the adjoining infrastructure, resulting in the “martyrdom" of 12 security forces, it added.
The Hafiz Gul Bahadur group — a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban — issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack.
Pakistan has witnessed a steady increase in violence since November 2022, when the Pakistani Taliban ended a monthslong cease-fire with the government in Islamabad.
In December 2023, a suicide bomber targeted a police station’s main gate in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in northwestern Pakistan, killing 23 troops.
The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, are separate to, but allies of, the Taliban which seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.
Tuesday's attack in Bannu came as Pakistan's political and military leadership was meeting in Islamabad to discuss how to respond to the surge in militant violence.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday approved a “comprehensive military operation” against separatist groups, including the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), in southwestern Balochistan province. The order came following a Nov. 9 suicide attack by the group at a train station that killed 26 people in Quetta, the capital of the province.
The BLA has also targeted and killed Chinese nationals in Balochistan and elsewhere in recent years. It claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that targeted a convoy with Chinese nationals outside the Karachi airport in October, killing two workers from China and wounding eight people.
Pakistan hosts thousands of Chinese workers as part of Beijing's multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, which is building major infrastructure projects. Beijing often asks Pakistan to enhance security of its nationals.
On Wednesday, Chinese and Pakistani troops began an anti-terror drill at a sprawling military facility in the restive northwest, the military said in a statement. The three-week drill is the latest in a series of bilateral exercises, it added.
Violence has also surged in northwest Pakistan in recent months, where security forces often target TTP and the Gul Bahadur group.
Abdullah Khan, a senior defense analyst and managing director of the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, said over 900 security forces have been killed in militant attacks in Pakistan since 2022, when TTP ended its cease-fire.
“TTP and other groups have expanded their operations, showing they are getting more recruits, money and weapons,” Khan said, adding there is a need for political stability in the country to defeat the insurgents.
Pakistan has experienced a political crisis since 2022, when then-Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament. He was arrested and imprisoned in 2023. Since then, his supporters have been rallying to demand his release.
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Associated Press writers Rasool Dawar and Ishtiaq Mahsud contributed to this story from Peshawar and Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, Pakistan.