Mardan, July 5: At least three people were killed and seven others injured, including a police officer, a woman, and a child, when an improvised explosive device planted near Jalala Bridge in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Mardan area went off, police said.
According to police officials, the explosive was planted on the bridge and went off just as a police van was passing by, suggesting that the attack was aimed at the convoy.
A statement from Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on social media platform X condemned the blast. Naqvi also extended his condolences to the victims.
As per the area’s SP, the police vehicle and a rickshaw were damaged in the blast, with three people in the rickshaw dead while seven people were injured, including two police officers.
Rescue 1122 rescuers and ambulances rushed to the scene soon after the incident and transported the deceased and injured to local hospitals.
The casualties were taken to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Takht Bhai and Mardan Medical Complex for further treatment and identification, the health officials stated.
Police have begun collecting evidence from the site and have initiated an investigation into the incident.
Saddr Superintendent of Police (SP) Khalid Khan told the media that “unidentified terrorists” had planted the device near the Jalala bridge in Takhtbhai area, which detonated as the police van passed by.
KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi also condemned the explosion and sympathised with the victims’ families.
KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur took notice of the incident and sought an immediate report from the provincial police chief.
He also directed best medical facilities for the injured and sympathised with the bereaved families.
A day ago, amid a fresh spiral of terrorist violence in the K-P province, a former senator and four men travelling with him were killed in a roadside bomb attack on their vehicle in the Mamund tehsil of Bajaur district.
The outlawed TTP was quick to deny involvement in the IED attack on Hidayatullah Khan, a brother of former K-P governor Shaukatullah Khan and son of ex-MNA Haji Bismillah Khan, in the Damadola area of Mamund. Hidayatullah was also the uncle of the independent candidate for the upcoming by-poll for PK-22 Bajaur-IV, Najeebullah Khan.
Pakistan has seen a significant rise in terror-related incidents across the country, particularly after the banned militant Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group broke a truce with the government in November 2022 and began targeting security personnel.
