At least 12 people were killed and around 35 injured in a suicide bombing at a police checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, after gunmen opened fire on an ambulance responding to the attack, officials said.
The blast, involving an explosives-laden vehicle, occurred in Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for the provincial emergency service.
Local police chief Safdar Baloch said most of those killed and injured were security personnel and people passing by the checkpoint.
The explosion destroyed the large roadside checkpoint, while witnesses reported hearing gunfire following the blast.
Faizi said attackers fired at an ambulance as emergency workers were taking victims to a nearby hospital. A rescue worker was killed and two others were wounded. Two women and a child were among those killed in the bombing, he said.
The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack.
Pakistan has witnessed increased militant violence in recent years, with the TTP and the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist group mainly active in neighboring Balochistan province, claiming many of the attacks.
The TTP is a separate organization from Afghanistan’s Taliban but maintains close ties with it. The Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the bombing and expressed condolences to the families of the victims.
Zardari called attacks targeting civilians and law enforcement personnel “highly condemnable” and urged stronger action against the TTP, accusing it of carrying out “heinous and brutal acts” with foreign backing.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of allowing TTP militants to operate from Afghan soil and has called on Kabul to prevent cross-border attacks. Afghan authorities deny allowing their territory to be used for attacks against other countries.
The bombing came two days after fighting along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border reportedly killed at least 13 Afghan Taliban fighters, according to Pakistan’s government.
The clash followed Pakistani strikes earlier in the week against what Islamabad described as suspected militant hideouts inside Afghanistan.
The renewed tensions have complicated mediation efforts by China, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to establish lasting peace between the neighboring countries.
Dera Ismail Khan lies near South Waziristan, a former militant stronghold where Pakistan’s military has carried out several operations.
Militants have frequently targeted security forces in the area. In December 2023, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-filled vehicle at the entrance of a police station in Dera Ismail Khan, killing at least 23 security personnel. Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan, a small militant group believed to be linked to the TTP, claimed responsibility for that attack.