Motorcycle bomb near police station kills two, injures 17 in Pakistan’s Bannu

Dubai: At least two people, including a child, were killed and 17 others injured in a motorcycle bomb explosion near a police station in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, officials said.

The blast occurred near Miryan Police Station in Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a region that has witnessed repeated militant attacks in recent years.

According to police, a time bomb planted in a motorcycle detonated near the gate of the station, damaging nearby shops and causing civilian casualties.

Police personnel remained unharmed, but civilians in the vicinity were caught in the explosion. Several of the injured were reported to be in critical condition.

Rescue 1122 teams and police rushed to the scene, shifting the wounded and the deceased to nearby medical facilities, including District Headquarters Hospital and Khalifa Gul Nawaz Hospital, officials said, according to Dawn.

Authorities said a heavy contingent of police, along with the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) and the Quick Response Force (QRF), cordoned off the area and launched a search operation. Evidence is being collected and an investigation is under way.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. However, suspicion is likely to fall on the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Islamabad frequently blames for a surge in violence across the country.

Bannu district has experienced multiple security incidents in recent months. In January, two boys were injured in an explosion in the Domel area, one of whom later died. Earlier the same month, former Domel nazim Fida Muhammad Khan Wazir was wounded in a bomb blast outside his office.

Pakistan has seen a rise in militant violence in recent years, straining ties between Islamabad and Kabul, as Pakistani authorities accuse militants of operating from across the Afghan border — a claim denied by Afghanistan’s Taliban government and the TTP.

-- With AP inputs