PESHAWAR, Pakistan—Explosives rigged to a parked motorcycle detonated near the gate of a police station in Bannu, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, killing at least two people including a child and wounding several others, police said Monday.
A separate attack later targeted a security checkpoint in Bajaur district, also in Pakistan’s northwest, when an explosives-laden vehicle driven by a suicide bomber approached the post, police said. Local police said troops returned fire during the attack.
In Bannu, police said the dead and wounded were taken to a nearby hospital, but did not provide additional details. Police said no group immediately claimed responsibility, though police indicated suspicion was likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban.
In Bajaur, police said the blast occurred as the suicide bomber and fighters were approaching the checkpoint. Police said troops killed at least eight of the attackers, using the term “Khawarij” that Pakistan uses for members of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.
Police said the impact of the Bajaur explosion also killed a girl after the roof of a nearby house collapsed. Police said rescuers were still removing rubble from the security post to rescue anyone trapped under it.
Police said three officers were wounded when part of the checkpoint collapsed, and the investigation continued as emergency teams worked at the scene. No group had immediately claimed responsibility for either attack, according to the police accounts.
The attacks come amid a broader pattern of violence in Pakistan’s northwest, with the government frequently blaming the TTP, which it says operates separately from but closely allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban. The two countries have been at odds over the TTP’s presence in Afghanistan, a charge Afghanistan denies, along with denials from the TTP.