One person was killed and 21 others were injured, including Pakistani soldiers, in a suicide attack on November 26 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in northwestern Pakistan, authorities said.
The suicide bomber drove a car into security forces in a market in Bannu, two officials with the police and intelligence agencies told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
They said the dead person was a civilian and that 13 soldiers and other civilians were among the injured who were taken to the hospital. The officials did not provide any other information, and there has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.
The security situation in the province has worsened in recent months despite promises by the government and security authorities. There were multiple deadly incidents last week, including the killing of a Forestry Department employee in North Waziristan on November 23.
One day earlier two soldiers were killed in a landmine explosion and a policeman was killed in an attack on a checkpoint in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while in South Waziristan on November 22, three civilians, including a local leader, were killed and four were injured in a bomb blast in Azam Worsk. No one has claimed responsibility for those attacks.
The bombing in Azam Worsk occurred after two soldiers were killed in an armed attack on a post in Sar Rogha in South Waziristan. The Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for that attack.
The Pakistani government and the country's army say that they have continued their operations against the militants.
The army said on November 21 that it had killed three suspected militants in an encounter in North Waziristan. The army added that one of its soldiers was also killed in the clash.
Earlier, the army had claimed the killing of 11 suspected militants in clashes during operations in Peshawar and Tank in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on November 16.
Pakistan's caretaker prime minister, Anwar ul-Haq Kakar, said on November 20 that terrorist attacks inside his country have increased by 60 percent since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021. Some 2,300 people have been killed in these attacks.