9 killed after car loaded with explosives detonates at busy Pak market
Security forces cordoned off the area as emergency teams shifted the injured to nearby hospitals for treatment. No groups have claimed responsibility for the blast.
Nine people, including seven civilians and two police officials, were killed in a powerful explosion in northwestern Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday. The incident reignited the regional tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which had witnessed escalating conflict earlier this year, triggered by massive cross-border firing.
As per a report by Reuters, the blast took place near a railway gate in a busy market area of Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat district. A rickshaw, which was loaded with explosives, detonated near the railway crossing, and as a result, nine people lost their lives, and more than 30 people sustained serious injuries.
The blast caused panic in the crowded market area, with rescue teams and security personnel rushing to the spot soon after the incident. Security forces cordoned off the area as emergency teams shifted the injured to nearby hospitals for treatment.
The police officials have launched a probe to ascertain the nature of the blast and to trace the people associated with it.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani government attributed the attack to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a group that operates independently of but remains allied with the Afghan Taliban. While the TTP has significantly escalated its offensive against Pakistan’s security forces lately, the Afghan Taliban administration issued a formal rejection of the allegations on Tuesday, a report by Al-Jazeera has confirmed.
"Pakistani officials’ latest remarks, which claim that an attack on a police centre in Bannu was planned in Afghanistan, are considered baseless and rejected,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a post on X.