PostedMay 15, 2022, 2:54 p.m.
A suicide bomber blew himself up when a military vehicle passed on Sunday at a market in Miran Shah, the Pakistani army reports.
The Pakistani army was the target of a suicide attack on Sunday in the province of North Waziristan, just 25 km from the Afghan border.
Photo d’illustration/AFP
Three soldiers and three children, aged 4 to 11, were killed in a suicide attack in northwestern Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, the Pakistani army said on Sunday. The suicide bomber, who arrived on foot, detonated his explosive vest when a military vehicle passed through a market in Miran Shah, in North Waziristan province, just 25 km from the Afghan border.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement that the “murderers of innocent children are the enemies of humanity and Islam”. “We will not be at peace until we hunt down these barbarians and those who support them,” he added.
The attack has not been claimed. But the Pakistani Taliban of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have long been active in this border area, where they operate across the porous border between the two countries. Pakistan accuses the Taliban of letting the TTP use Afghan soil to plan its attacks, which Kabul has repeatedly denied.
Pakistani Taliban comeback
A distinct group from the Afghan Taliban, but driven by the same ideology and a long common history, the TTP carried out countless attacks that bloodied Pakistan between its creation in 2007 and 2014. Then weakened by intense operations by the he army came back in force for more than a year, forcing Islamabad to open negotiations, accompanied by a ceasefire, at the end of last year for the first time since 2014, with the mediation of the Taliban Afghans.
These discussions came to nothing. But the TTP earlier this month declared a new ceasefire for the Islamic holiday of Eid, which has been extended until May 16. A letter from the TTP outlining the truce asked the fighters “not to violate the decision taken by the central command”. The TTP aggregates different currents, which do not always respect all the decisions taken by the group’s management.
(AFP)
