Dozens of people, including two police officers, were killed and dozens more injured in a bomb blast at a market in north-western Pakistan on Tuesday (12 May), authorities said, in the second deadly attack in the region within four days.
The explosion struck Tehsil Sarai Nawrang Bazaar near Bannu district, close to Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, an area that has seen rising militant violence and heightened tensions between the neighbouring countries.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Nawrang Saeed Khan said five civilians and two police officers were killed in the blast, while dozens of wounded victims were transported to nearby hospitals.
Emergency response teams, including ambulances and fire vehicles, were dispatched to the scene shortly after the explosion, rescue authorities said in a statement.
Mohammad Ishaq, medical superintendent at THQ Hospital, said the facility had received at least 37 injured people, adding that several were in critical condition.
Footage from the scene showed damaged shopfronts and a heavily mangled vehicle amid debris scattered across the market area.
The attack comes days after a car bombing and ambush on a police post in the same region killed 15 police personnel on Saturday (9 May).
Following that assault, Pakistan accused Afghanistan-based militants of carrying out the attack and lodged a formal protest with Kabul.
Pakistan has repeatedly alleged that militants use Afghan territory to plan and launch attacks inside Pakistan, accusations denied by the Taliban administration in Afghanistan, which says militancy inside Pakistan is a domestic security issue.
The Afghan Taliban administration on Tuesday rejected allegations that militants based in Afghanistan were behind the weekend attack.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a post on X that Pakistani officials’ claims the assault on a police centre in Bannu was planned in Afghanistan are “baseless and rejected.”
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