Child among two killed in Pakistan motorcycle bomb blast | World News

Two people, including a child, were killed and a dozen injured when a bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded near a police station in northwestern Pakistan, local authorities have said. 

The attack took place in Bannu, a district in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, local police official Fida Mohammad said.

Mr Mohammad didn’t provide any further details but said the dead and wounded had been taken to a nearby hospital.

Though no group immediately claimed responsibility, suspicion was likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP.

Toheed Gandapur, senior police officer, said: “The blast happened in front of Meryan police station, on the road.

“So far, 12 people have been wounded and two other civilians have been killed. They were all brought here to the hospital.”

He added: “We are receiving threats on a daily bases and we are taking precautionary measures according to those threats.

“The whole district police is on high alert. God willing, we are trying our best to make sure that this kind of incident never happens.”

It comes against a backdrop of an increase in violence in Pakistan in recent years, with the government frequently blaming the outlawed TTP.

The group is separate from but closely allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban who returned to power in 2021.

The increase in attacks has strained relations between Islamabad and Kabul, as Pakistan accuses the TTP of operating freely inside Afghanistan, a charge both the TTP and Kabul deny.