Pakistan’s security forces were still working to secure and investigate the scene of a suicide attack on a police security post in Bannu, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, after the death toll rose to 14 officers by early Sunday.

Authorities said the attack began late Saturday when a suicide bomber and several gunmen drove an explosives-laden vehicle near the post, setting off a shootout and damaging nearby buildings. Senior police official Sajjad Khan said some officers were killed in the initial exchange while others died after the building collapsed, and he said three police officers were wounded.

Rescuers searched for hours following the blast, using heavy machinery to retrieve bodies from under the rubble. Khan said the operation to recover those killed continued after the initial blast and gunfire as families awaited news.

At the Bannu police headquarters, hundreds of people gathered for funerals of the slain officers. Uniformed colleagues stood in silence as coffins draped in the national flag were carried past grieving families, with some relatives breaking down when they saw the coffins, and a Muslim cleric led funeral prayers under tight security.

The attack’s claimed responsibility came from a militant group that said it had been formed by splinter factions of the Pakistani Taliban. Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan said it carried out the attack in a statement sent to reporters, while authorities have accused the group of being a front for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Pakistan’s leaders condemned the attack and offered condolences to victims’ families. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari both condemned the attack, and Zardari instructed local authorities to assist the wounded and residents whose homes were damaged.

Zardari also linked the attack to regional tensions, saying militants “find safe havens in neighboring Afghanistan and also vowed to target “their facilitators and sponsors.” He said, in a statement, that “Terrorists operating from sanctuaries in Afghanistan under the Taliban administration and supported externally are targeting civilians and law enforcement personnel in Pakistan,” according to the report.

The attack underlined the security environment in Pakistan, where violence has surged in recent years and has often been blamed on the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and its ties to the Afghan Taliban, which returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021. Pakistani officials frequently accuse the Taliban government of providing sanctuary to the Pakistani Taliban, a claim Kabul denies.

Tensions between the two neighbors have persisted, and the report said both sides have engaged in fighting that killed hundreds of people since late February. It also said Afghan and Pakistani officials held peace talks mediated by China in early April, but that sporadic cross-border clashes continued after the talks, though at a lower intensity than before.