A suicide attack on a security post in north-west Pakistan has killed 14 police officers, authorities confirmed on Sunday. The assault occurred late on Saturday in Bannu, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.
Senior police official Sajjad Khan said a suicide bomber and several gunmen detonated an explosives-laden vehicle near the post. The blast triggered an intense shootout, with some officers killed in the exchange and others dying after the building collapsed. Rescuers used heavy machinery to retrieve bodies from the rubble, and three officers were wounded.
A newly formed militant group, Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan, claimed responsibility. The group says it is a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), but authorities allege it is a front for the TTP. Pakistan has seen a surge in militant violence in recent years, much of it blamed on the TTP, which is allied with the Afghan Taliban.
Islamabad frequently accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harbouring TTP militants, a claim Kabul denies. Tensions between the neighbours have persisted, with sporadic cross-border clashes continuing despite Chinese-mediated peace talks in early April.
