WEB DESK
Nine soldiers were killed and 20 others injured in a suicide bombing in the Mali Khel area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan. Police sources said that the attack took place while a suicide bomber riding a motorbike targeted a convoy of security forces. A motorcycle-borne suicide bomber exploded himself in Pakistan’s Bannu district, 61 kilometres from the border, the army’s media wing said.
Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic uptick in militancy since the Taliban returned to power in neighbouring Afghanistan two years ago, with attacks spiking along border regions. The rugged border region has long been a hive of militant activity, with hardline organizations such as Pakistan’s home-grown Taliban group, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), using the largely unpoliced border to evade detection and stage assaults.
Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar called the incident a cowardly terrorist act and conveyed his condolences on the unfortunate incident.