Asia-PacificPakistan

Bomb blast kills six in Pakistan’s tribal region

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A bomb explosion has killed at least six people, including four policemen, and injured 31 others in the Pakistani town of Jamrud, in the restive Khyber district of northwestern Pakistan.

Officials said on Tuesday that the bomber targeted a local government office, adding that four of the wounded policemen were in critical condition.

“At least six people were killed and 31 others wounded after a suicide bomber detonated himself at the office entrance,” senior Khyber tribal administration official Shahab Ali Shah said.

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the bombing. Pro-Taliban and al-Qaeda militant groups have in the past carried out similar attacks against local government buildings as well as officials and police headquarters.

Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous tribal districts near the Afghan border have long been rife with militancy.

Islamabad launched a major military operation on June 15 in the restive North Waziristan tribal area, in a bid to quell the militancy there.

A top adviser to the Pakistani government said on Monday that Pakistani forces have dealt a big blow to the militants, including both al-Qaeda militants and the pro-Taliban groups, especially the Haqqani network.

Sartaj Aziz, the advisor on national security and foreign affairs to Pakistan’s prime minister (Photo by AFP)

 

The Pakistani prime minister’s adviser on national security and foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, said most of the Haqqani network’s bases had been destroyed by an army operation that began in the North Waziristan tribal district last month.

“The infrastructure of Haqqani network in North Waziristan, which includes IED [improvised explosive device] factories and a number of other capacities, including communications, has been disrupted,” Aziz said.

The Pakistani official, however, warned that the Haqqani network still remains active across the lawless border area in neighboring Afghanistan.

“Our assessment is that their capacity in Afghanistan is much bigger” than in Pakistan, he said.

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