PESHAWAR: A senior administration official and two police personnel were among five people killed in a roadside blast in Pakistan’s northwestern Bajaur district on Wednesday, police confirmed, in yet another suspected militant attack in the country’s tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
The improvised explosive device (IED) targeted the vehicle of Assistant Commissioner Faisal Sultan, a top local administrator, near Meena Ground in Khar, Bajaur’s district headquarters, according to a senior police officer in the area.
“An IED bomb blast targeted the vehicle of the Assistant Commissioner of Nawagai,” District Police Officer Waqas Rafiq told Arab News over the phone. “As a result of the blast, four government officials and a civilian were martyred.”
Sharing the details, Rafiq said Sultan died in the blast along with Tehsildar Wakeel Khan, police constable Rasheed, Levies official Noor Hakeem and an unidentified civilian.
Eleven others were also injured and shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital in Khar, he added.
No group has claimed responsibility so far, though suspicion is likely to fall on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has a history of carrying out attacks on police and security personnel, government functionaries and civilians in the northwestern regions.
Militant violence has surged in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in recent years, particularly in the tribal districts.
Bajaur, which is one of these districts, has also remained prone to militant attacks in the past, especially during the period when US and NATO forces were active across the border after the 9/11 attacks.
Last week, 13 Pakistani soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing on a military convoy in Mir Ali, North Waziristan.
The country’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, visited the site and later attended the funeral prayers for the slain troops, vowing retribution.
