Bomber targets police in northwest Pakistan
January 19, 2016
At least ten people were killed in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday when a bomber targeted a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Peshawar. The explosion came amidst a traffic jam on the outskirts of the city, on the road that links the town with the restive Khyber tribal region.
More than a dozen were injured in the blast, which local authorities said had targeted local police officials. Preliminary investigation findings suggested that the bomb had been planted on a motorcycle near the checkpoint, and was likely a suicide attack. The checkpoint is regularly patrolled by both police guards and paramilitary troops.
No one has yet claimed the attack but the hilly wooded area of Khyber, which borders Afghanistan, has long been home to some of the region's most feared militants. Both al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban have been known to have outposts there. However, after Islamabad announced a military crackdown in 2014, the security situation in the area was considered much improved.
Despite the increased military presence, the beginning of 2016 has seen a wave of violence in western Pakistan. Tuesday's attack came just one day after a similar roadside bomb claimed the lives of six soldiers near the southwestern city of Quetta. In the same city just a few days earlier, a bomb targeting a polio vaccine center claimed 14 lives.
es/jlw (dpa, AFP, AP)