PESHAWAR: Five people were injured in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast in northwestern Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police reported on Friday.
According to senior police official of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police, the blast took place in Dera Ismail Khan district of the province. The police said that explosive device was planted in a motorcycle near the central market in the Drazanda area of the district.
Yaqoob Khan, the spokesperson for Dera Ismail Khan District Police Officer Abdul Rauf said that wounded people were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital, with one reported to be in critical condition.
Khan further stated that the explosion resulted in severe damage to four shops and three motorcycles in the vicinity. He said that a large contingent of police were deployed at the scene to collect the evidence from the crime scene.
After the incident, Following the incident, the KP government ordered the day-long closure of Gomal university in the district.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has witnessed surge in terror attacks, particularly in its southern region, encompassing districts such as Tank, DI Khan, Kohat, North Waziristan, South Waziristan, Bannu, Karak, and Lakki Marwat.
Earlier this month, ten police officers were martyred and six were injured in a late-night attack on the Chodwan police station in Dera Ismail Khan. In December 2023, at least 25 soldiers were martyred, with 27 terrorists killed in three separate incidents in the district, marking the military’s highest single-day death toll from terrorist attacks reported that year.
According to an annual security report by the Centre for Research and Security Studies, Pakistan experienced 1,524 violence-related deaths, and 1,463 injuries in 789 terror attacks and counter-terror operations in 2023 — marking a record six-year high.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were identified as the primary centers of violence, accounting for over 90 percent of all fatalities and 84 percent of attacks, including terrorism incidents and security forces operations.
