A bomb-laden rickshaw exploded in the town of Sarai Naurang, in Lakki Marwat district near the Afghan border, on Tuesday. Local police said two traffic police officers and a woman were among the dead.
Rescue 1122, the emergency response service, said about 30 people were wounded and those with serious injuries were taken to a hospital in Bannu. Dr. Mohammad Ishaq, medical director of THQ Hospital, said the facility had received 37 patients, some in critical condition.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. It came just days after 21 police officers were killed in a bombing and shooting at a security station in the neighboring Bannu district, an attack Pakistan blamed on the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The TTP is a separate but allied group to the Afghan Taliban government and has stepped up operations against Pakistani security forces in recent years.
The Taliban administration in Afghanistan on Tuesday rejected the accusation. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on social media platform X that the latest claims by Pakistani officials that the attack on the police station in Bannu was planned from Afghanistan were baseless and rejected. Pakistan has long accused the Afghan Taliban government of harboring TTP fighters, while Kabul denies this and says it does not allow any attacks on other countries from its soil.
Pakistan has seen a surge in violence in recent years as the TTP and other armed groups have grown bolder since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul. Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have escalated in recent months, with clashes that killed hundreds since late February. In early April, China brokered talks to end the violence, but cross-border skirmishes have continued, albeit at a lower intensity than before the talks.
