According to an official, a suicide blast at a Pakistan army base on Tuesday claimed the lives of at least 23 people. Terrorists connected to the Taliban in Pakistan assert that the attack was carried out.
According to a local official who spoke on condition of anonymity, the early morning strike struck a base in the Dera Ismail Khan area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, close to the Afghan border.
“Many of them were killed while they were sleeping and in civilian clothes, so we are still determining if they are all military personnel,” said the officer.
He claimed that when the explosive-packed suicide car exploded close to a school that had been used as a temporary military station, 27 more people were injured.
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He went on to say that there were worries that the death toll would go up even higher. Three rooms collapsed, and efforts were under way to retrieve people from the wreckage.
The incident started at 2:30 am (2130 GMT), according to Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan, a newly formed organisation connected to the Pakistan Taliban, when one fighter conducted a “martyrdom attack” before more fighters assaulted the building.
The Pakistani army has not yet provided a statement regarding the incident.
Since the Taliban reclaimed control of Afghanistan in 2021, there has been a noticeable increase in militant attacks in Pakistan, mostly in the bordering provinces.
The success of the neighbouring insurgency after US soldiers left in 2021, according to analysts, has given Islamist rebels more confidence.
The Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies reports that, compared to the same period in 2022, there were almost 80% more attacks in the first half of 2023.
The Taliban leadership continually refutes Islamabad’s assertions that hostile groups operate from “sanctuaries” across the border.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the local branch of the Taliban with ties to Kabul’s authority and similar ideas, poses the greatest threat to Pakistan.
The TTP was implicated in the January mosque explosion that murdered over 80 police personnel inside a Peshawar headquarters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the capital of the northwest province.
In a cross-border attack in September in Pakistan’s well-known tourist destination of Chitral, “hundreds” of TTP fighters reportedly lost their lives.
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