The Pakistani Taliban on September 23 denied involvement in a bombing attack the previous day on a police convoy that was escorting foreign ambassadors in the country's restive northwest.
One officer was killed and four wounded in the roadside bombing attack on September 22, when a police vehicle was escorting about a dozen foreign diplomats to a business meeting in the Swat district.
The convoy included diplomats from Russia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, and Portugal.
The diplomats were on their way back from an event organized by local businessmen to promote tourism in the Swat district. Once a Taliban stronghold, Swat has experienced a rise in attacks tied to Islamic militarism.
The attack drew strong condemnation from Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and other officials.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but Mohammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e Taliban, denied detonating the improvised explosive device that hit a police vehicle accompanying the convoy.
The attack on September 22 came months after a suicide bomber in northwestern Pakistan rammed his explosive-laden car into a vehicle, killing five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver in Shangla, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
The Chinese victims were construction workers and engineers who were working on Dasu Dam, the biggest hydropower project in Pakistan. Since then, Pakistan has beefed up security for foreigners and envoys traveling in the region.
Pakistani counterterrorist forces maintain a strong presence in the Swat Valley, which has long been a hotbed of Islamist militant insurgency. The militants have stepped up their attacks since late 2022 after breaking a cease-fire with the government.
In 2012, Islamist militants shot and wounded Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai in the valley.