A suicide bombing at a roadside police checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan has killed at least 11 people, with authorities confirming the death toll on Saturday.
The attacker detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the checkpoint in Dera Ismail Khan, the country’s tenth largest city, police said.
Around 30 others were wounded in the blast, with the victims consisting mostly of security personnel and passersby caught in the explosion.
Police confirmed that some of the injured were in a critical condition following the attack, raising concerns that the death toll could climb further.
Emergency teams from Rescue 1122 provided medical assistance to the wounded and transported them to hospital, according to the service.
The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack in a formal statement shortly after the bombing.
Dera Ismail Khan is located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a region bordering Afghanistan that has been repeatedly targeted by Islamist militant violence in recent years.
The attack came just two days after fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan along their southwestern border killed at least 13 members of the Afghan Taliban, deepening tensions between the two neighbors.
Pakistan has experienced a significant surge in militant attacks in recent years, with many incidents claimed by the TTP or the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist group primarily active in Balochistan province.
The TTP is ideologically aligned with Afghanistan’s Taliban government, which returned to power in 2021 following the withdrawal of United States and NATO forces from the country.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused Kabul of allowing TTP members to plan and launch attacks from Afghan territory, while the Taliban have consistently denied permitting their soil to be used for cross-border violence.
The ongoing rift has escalated into a cycle of cross-border incidents, with Pakistan carrying out airstrikes it says are aimed at militant positions on Afghan soil.
China, Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia are all actively engaged in efforts to mediate a lasting peace agreement between the two neighboring countries.
