At least three police officers have been killed after a suicide car bombing triggered an intense firefight at a security post in northwestern Pakistan, police said, in the latest attack to hit the volatile region bordering Afghanistan. The assault took place late Saturday in Bannu district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Police official Zahid Khan said a suicide bomber and several armed men detonated an explosives-laden vehicle near a security post, causing multiple explosions and bringing down part of the structure. The attack was followed by heavy gunfire as security forces engaged the assailants.
Security officials said the attackers also ambushed police personnel rushing to reinforce the post, raising fears of additional casualties. Police sources told Reuters that drones were also used in the assault, suggesting a more coordinated and technologically advanced attack than many previous strikes in the area. Nearby civilian areas were also damaged by the explosions, according to local reports, with at least two civilians injured. Rescue teams and ambulances were sent to the scene, while authorities declared an emergency at government hospitals in Bannu as the operation continued.
No group immediately claimed responsibility. However, suspicion is likely to fall on Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, and allied militant factions that have repeatedly targeted police, soldiers and security installations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The TTP is separate from Afghanistan’s Taliban government but shares ideological and operational links with elements across the border. Bannu has seen repeated militant activity in recent months. Earlier this month, a police constable was killed when militants attacked an armoured police vehicle with rockets and sniper fire near the Fatah Khel police post. In April, a suicide car bomb targeting a police station in Bannu killed five people and injured several others, including a police officer.
The latest attack comes amid renewed tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Islamabad has accused Kabul of allowing armed groups to use Afghan territory to plan and launch attacks inside Pakistan. The Taliban authorities in Afghanistan deny the allegation and say Pakistan’s militancy problem is domestic. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been at the centre of Pakistan’s worsening security challenge since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021. Police posts, military convoys, polio teams and local officials have increasingly come under attack, stretching security forces across the province.
Saturday’s assault underscores the growing threat facing Pakistan’s northwest, where militants appear to be combining suicide bombings, ambushes and drones to strike security targets with greater force.
