Anurag Kumar
Thursday, nine soldiers were slain in a volatile region of western Pakistan when a suicide bomber rammed his motorcycle into their military convoy and detonated it, according to the army and officials.
Since the Taliban’s return to power in neighboring Afghanistan two years ago, there has been a dramatic increase in border region assaults in Pakistan.
A motorcycle-borne suicide bomber detonated himself 61 kilometers (38 miles) from the frontier in Pakistan’s Bannu district, according to the army’s media arm.
The border region has long been a hotbed of militant activity, with hardline groups such as Pakistan’s homegrown Taliban group, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), using the largely unpoliced border to elude detection and stage attacks.
“The suicide bomber was riding a motorcycle and rammed his bike into a truck in a military convoy,” provincial minister Feroze Jamal Shah told AFP.
The Pakistani army stated that five additional soldiers were injured in the attack near the town of Jani Khel, but Shah placed the number at twenty.
Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, caretaker prime minister, described the incident as “a cowardly terrorist act.”
The TTP is the greatest menace in the region, and Islamabad claims that its fighters have found refuge in Afghanistan.
The group has waged a campaign against security personnel, including police officers, in recent months.
In January, a suicide bomber with ties to the TTP blew himself up in a mosque inside a police compound in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan, murdering more than 80 officers.
The Islamic State group has also been active in the country, claiming responsibility for a suicide bombing at a political party gathering last month that killed at least 54 people, including 23 minors.
Pakistan was once plagued by near-daily bombings, but beginning in 2014, a significant military clearance operation in the former tribal areas restored order to a large extent.
After the passage of legislation in 2018, the seven bordering Afghanistan districts, including Bannu, were brought under the jurisdiction of Pakistani authorities.
The return of Taliban authorities to Afghanistan, according to analysts, has emboldened militants in the formerly tribal regions.
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In the meantime, Pakistan is dealing with a deteriorating security situation, an economic decline, and political turmoil, with elections for a new government scheduled for the coming months, but no official date yet established.
