A powerful car bomb attack combined with a fierce gunbattle has killed 14 police officers at a security checkpoint in Bannu district, near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.
Authorities said a suicide bomber, supported by several gunmen, drove an explosives-laden vehicle into the police post late Saturday. The massive blast caused parts of the building to collapse, trapping several officers, while others were killed during the ensuing firefight. At least three officers were injured in the assault, which left the checkpoint in ruins and vehicles mangled at the scene.
Pakistan held a state funeral on Sunday to honor the 14 fallen police officers.
A newly formed militant group calling itself Mujahedin Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement sent to media outlets, the outfit said it was formed by splinter factions of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP). Pakistani authorities, however, maintain that the group is simply a front organization for the TTP.
The incident comes amid a sharp increase in militant violence across Pakistan in recent years, with many attacks linked to the TTP — a group allied with Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, which seized power in Kabul in 2021. Islamabad has repeatedly accused Kabul of harboring TTP fighters, a charge the Afghan Taliban government has consistently denied.
Relations between the two neighbors have deteriorated further, triggering repeated cross-border clashes since late February that have resulted in hundreds of deaths on both sides.