Attacks in Bajaur, Quetta come days after cease-fire between government, Pakistani Taliban
At least two policemen were killed and another injured along with six civilians in two bomb blasts in Pakistan on Saturday.
An improvised explosive device was planted by a roadside in the northwestern Bajaur tribal district, near the border with Afghanistan, according to district police chief Samad Khan.
The blast targeted a police team on patrol in the area, he said.
Bajaur is one of seven tribal districts – formerly called tribal agencies – that have been targeted by militants, particularly the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Another explosion was reported in Quetta, capital of the southwestern Balochistan province that borders Afghanistan and Iran.
Authorities said a remote-controlled device was detonated near a police van, wounding a cop and six civilians, including women.
No group has claimed responsibility for the two attacks.
The latest attacks came days after the government and the TTP, which is an umbrella group of several militant organizations, announced a month-long cease-fire.
The government said earlier this week that it had reached a “complete” cease-fire with the militant coalition.
Afghanistan’s interim Taliban interim administration “facilitated” the talks aimed at restoring peace in the country’s restive northwestern tribal regions, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said at a news conference.
The TTP also confirmed the deal, saying it would observe a truce from Nov. 9 to Dec. 9.
Formed in 2007 in the tribal South Waziristan district, the TTP has been involved in numerous attacks, including suicide bombings, inside Pakistan.
It was also behind the 2014 attack on an army-run school in Peshawar that killed nearly 150 people, mostly schoolchildren, and is considered the deadliest incident of terrorism in Pakistan’s history.
The network later moved to North Waziristan – once dubbed the heartland of militancy in Pakistan – following an army onslaught on South Waziristan in 2010.
Another large-scale army operation in 2014 pushed the TTP towards neighboring Afghanistan, and Islamabad claims the terrorist network has now set up bases across the border.
