At least 11 killed in Pakistan blasts

North Waziristan regional government official Rehman Gul Khattak said in a statement that the workers were killed on Saturday night.

Amir Muhammad Khan, a police chief in the region, confirmed to Agence France-Presse the blast and the death toll.

“It is heartbreaking to learn of the terrorist attack in North Waziristan that claimed the lives of 11 innocent workers. We strongly condemn this senseless act of violence and express our solidarity with the affected families,” said Caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Khakkar. , on social network X (formerly Twitter).

North Waziristan is one of the former semi-autonomous tribal regions in northwestern Pakistan where the military has carried out several operations against Islamic fundamentalists linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban following the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan by the United States and its allies.

Pakistan has been facing for months, especially since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in August 2021, a deterioration in the security situation, especially in areas bordering Afghanistan.

The Islamabad government says some of the attacks were planned on Afghan soil, which Kabul denies.

In early August, after Pakistan’s fresh accusations, Afghan Defense Minister Mohammad Yaqoob recalled the Taliban’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada’s warning against any attacks outside the country’s borders.

Fighting outside Afghanistan is not sanctioned by religion and is indeed a war, illegal in the eyes of the Taliban’s supreme leader, the minister declared, in a statement broadcast by members of the Afghan security forces and on state television.

In recent months, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a group of the Pakistani Taliban, has been waging an intensive campaign against security personnel, including police officers.

In January, a TTP-linked man blew himself up at a mosque inside a police compound in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing more than 80 officers.

The Pakistani wing of the Islamic State group, which maintains a bloody rivalry with the Taliban, is also active in the region and on July 31 launched an attack in Khar town, 45 kilometers from the border with Afghanistan.

At least 54 people, including 23 children, were killed in the attack during a rally by the religiously conservative Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam party. About 400 attendees waited for the speeches to begin when a man blew himself up near the stage.