Three people were killed and 23 injured Wednesday when a suicide bomber targeted a police truck in western Pakistan, an attack claimed by the domestic chapter of the Taliban.
Tehreek–e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), separate from the Afghan Taliban but sharing a common hardline Islamist ideology, earlier this week called off a shaky months-long ceasefire agreed upon with Islamabad and ordered its fighters to resume attacks across the nation.
Senior Police Official, Azhar Mehesar told AFP that Wednesday’s blast targeted security forces preparing to escort polio vaccinators in the city of Quetta, and those killed “include a policeman, a woman and a child”.
In a statement, the TTP said a “holy warrior” detonated a car bomb near a customs post to avenge the killing of founding member Umar Khalid Khurasani during the truce.
“Our revenge operations will continue,” the statement added.
The TTP was founded in 2007 by Pakistani jihadists who fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan in the 1990s before opposing Islamabad’s support for the US-led intervention there after 9/11.
For a time they held vast tracts of Pakistan’s rugged tribal belt, imposing a radical interpretation of Islamic law and patrolling territory just 140 kilometres (85 miles) from the Pakistan capital.
Channels TV/ Titilayo Kupoliyi
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