A suicide bomber and gunmen detonated explosives near a police security post in Bannu, in Pakistan’s northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, late Saturday, triggering a firefight that killed at least three police officers, police said. Police official Zahid Khan said the explosives-laden vehicle was detonated close to the post and that the blast hit the surrounding area.
Khan said multiple explosions were heard shortly after the attack and that some nearby houses collapsed from the impact. He said the collapse also affected the security post and that officers inside were among those killed, while others were believed to be wounded and trapped under rubble.
Khan said the exchange of fire was still ongoing after the blast, without providing further details about the situation at the post. He did not specify how many officers were wounded or how long the firefight had lasted.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, police said. However, suspicion was likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, and allied militant groups that have carried out similar attacks in the past.
Pakistan has seen a surge in militant violence in recent years, according to the AP report. The report also said the TTP is a separate group but allied to the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.
This incident comes shortly after MSI previously reported that a suicide blast hit a Pakistan security post and killed 14 police officers as covered on May 9.