Pakistan's interior minister points to extremist militant group TTP as likely perpetrator

The scene of a suicide bombing outside the entrance of a local court in Islamabad, Pakistan. [AP. Not related to this article]
The scene of a suicide bombing outside the entrance of a local court in Islamabad, Pakistan. [AP. Not related to this article]

Seven people were killed in a series of bomb attacks in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border.

The blasts struck the Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Saturday, according to AP and AFP.

A passenger transport truck was first hit by an explosion on a roadside, killing five people. When rescue workers arrived at the scene, a second blast killed two more. Three others were injured and taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Yasir Afridi, a Bannu police officer, said the truck had been targeted by an improvised explosive device. "A second IED detonated while the injured were being transported to hospital for emergency treatment," he said.

Bannu was also the site of a suicide bombing and gun battle targeting a police checkpoint on May 9, which killed 15 officers and wounded four. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan, is considered the most terrorism-prone province in Pakistan, where separatist and extremist groups including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, are highly active. Last year alone, the province recorded 3,811 terrorist incidents, including 16 suicide bombings.

The Pakistani government blamed the TTP for the May attack in Bannu and summoned the Afghan chargé d'affaires in Islamabad to lodge a formal protest. The Afghan Taliban government, however, denied any connection to the attack.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Pakistan was "committed to eradicating terrorism" and vowed to bring those responsible to justice.

Pakistani security forces secured the scene and launched a formal investigation. No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack, but foreign media have raised the possibility that the TTP could be a suspect. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack as barbaric and also pointed to the TTP as the likely perpetrator.

The TTP is an alliance of Sunni Islamist militant factions that seeks to overthrow the Pakistani government and establish a state governed by Sharia, or Islamic law. While distinct from the Afghan Taliban, the group shares a similar ideology and has long maintained close ties with it. The TTP is believed to operate across the Afghan border, using Afghanistan as a primary base from which to carry out attacks inside Pakistan.


ikson@heraldcorp.com