7 killed after car bomb accidently explodes in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban
7 killed after car bomb accidently explodes in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A powerful car bomb accidentally went off in a house in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in the restive northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least two children and five suspected militants, police said.
The explosion took place before dawn in the city of Mir Ali in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when a militant, identified as commander Rasool Jan, was fitting a bomb in a car at his house, said Irfan Khan, a local police official.
He said the Pakistani Taliban quickly arrived at the scene and removed the bodies of the slain insurgents. Authorities later found the bodies of two children from the rubble of the house that collapsed due to the impact of the explosion.
The blast also badly damaged several nearby homes and wounded 14 people, including women.
Khan said it appeared the car bomb was to be used in an attack in the region where Pakistani Taliban and other insurgents often target security forces with assault rifles, rockets, grenades and suicide car bombings.
He said some of those injured were in critical condition at a hospital. He did not provide further details.
Elsewhere in the province Thursday, a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle set off an explosive device prematurely on a deserted road in Charsadda district, killing himself but harming no one else, police said.
Local police official Masood Khan said the intended target was unclear and bomb disposal experts and police were still investigating whether the man was wearing the explosives or they were attached to his motorcycle.
The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, are separate from the Afghan Taliban but have been emboldened by the group’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.
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Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar contributed to this story from Mir Ali, Pakistan.
By RIAZ KHAN
Associated Press
