TTP claims responsibility for Bajaur attack that killed 6, injured 10

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, has claimed responsibility for carrying out a roadside bomb explosion targeting a police van in Bajaur, according to a news report by TRT World.

The attack killed at least six officers and wounded 10 others, in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, officials said.

The police were assigned to protect workers in an anti-polio immunisation campaign when an IED (improvised explosive device) explosion hit it on Monday.

The bombing happened in the former Pakistani Taliban stronghold of Mamond in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bordering Afghanistan, police official Kashif Zulfiquar said.

Deadly blast hits police vehicle in Tehsil Mamond, Bajaur

He said some of the wounded officers were in critical condition at a government hospital. Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence, TRT said adding that, the militants often target polio teams and police assigned to protect them, claiming falsely that the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilise children.

In a statement, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which came hours after authorities launched the first anti-polio campaign of the new year.

The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, is a separate group but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.

Many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuaries in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, which also emboldened the TTP to carry out more attacks on security forces. It has strained Pakistan’s ties with the Taliban administration in Kabul, which insists it does not allow TTP to use its soil to launch attacks in Pakistan.