At least 22 military personnel injured in Pakistan suicide attack

At least 22 security personnel were injured in a tribal district in northwest Pakistan on Saturday when an explosive-laden suicide bomber on a motorcycle targeted a convoy.

According to official sources, the suicide blast occurred in the Chehkan area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, within the vicinity of Sadar police station, as a convoy carrying security forces was en route to Minza area in South Waziristan district from the province’s DI Khan area.

Officials also said the convoy was targeted near the Wana petrol pump, as the suicide bomber approached the forces, and while passing through, he slammed his explosives-laden motorcycle into the convoy of military vehicles.

The area was cordoned off immediately after the suicide attack. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

“As per information, the said blast was a suicide attack in which an unknown suicide bomber riding on a motorbike blew himself up on the convoy of security forces,” official sources said, Pakistan’s English-language newspaper Dawn reported.

“It is likely that the suicide bomber was waiting for the convoy of the security forces at the petrol pump, which is approximately 400 meters away from the site of the attack.”

“The injured personnel were shifted to Combined Military Hospital in Dera Ismail Khan, where two of them are reported to be in critical condition.”

The police also launched a joint search operation at the scene immediately after the attack.

Saturday’s attack comes three days after another suicide bomb attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, in which a suicide bomber with an explosive-laden car targeted a security checkpoint in the Datta Khel Bazar in North Waziristan.

In Pakistan, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province witnesses the most terrorist attacks, but there have also been attacks in Balochistan, the Punjab town of Mianwali, which borders the unrest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the Sindh Province.

Bordering Afghanistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province is a former stronghold of the militant Pakistani Taliban group, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP.

ME