Pakistan: at least 11 dead in a suicide attack in the north of the country

An explosion Saturday at a checkpoint in northern Pakistan killed at least 11 people and injured 18 others, officials said.

“Around noon, a suicide bomber rushed a vehicle loaded with explosives into the checkpoint, killing 11 people,” Dera Ismail Khan police official Saifullah Khan told AFP. He said the security checkpoint located at Darazinda was jointly managed by the police, army and customs services.

“Eleven bodies have so far been recovered following the attack by militants on the Darazinda post,” rescue services spokesperson Bilal Faizi told AFP. He added that 18 other people were injured.

On September 18, at least 31 people, including 16 police officers, were killed in an explosion followed by an armed attack on a police headquarters in Kohat, a town of around 220,000 inhabitants located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, Pakistan.

Pakistan has blamed the rise in attacks in KP and the southern border province of Balochistan on an insurgency emanating from Afghanistan, where the Taliban government denies any involvement. These accusations caused a deep rift and armed conflict between the two countries, and Pakistan carried out deadly airstrikes claiming to target militants on Afghan soil.