Separate incidents on Monday in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in which at least 25 people were wounded, come as Pakistani security forces battle intensifying insurgencies in the southern and northern provinces bordering Afghanistan.
This month, the Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for a mass suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in the capital, Islamabad, that killed at least 31 people and wounded 169 others.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a security official told AFP that on Monday night, a suicide bomber drove a vehicle laden with explosives into the wall of a religious college in the Bajaur tribal district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
– As a result, eight policemen and members of the Border Corps were killed, and 10 others were injured – he said.
– The explosion also caused the roofs of several nearby houses to collapse, killing one child – he said.
He added that the number of victims could rise.
In another attack in the city of Bannu, a bomb planted in a rickshaw exploded at the Miryan police station, killing two civilians and wounding 17 others, the official said.
Elsewhere, three policemen and three militants were also killed during a search operation in Shangla district.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Force said in a statement, also late on Monday, that the three militants who were killed in the gunfight were involved in “attacks targeting Chinese nationals”.
Beijing has invested billions of dollars in Pakistan in recent years, but Chinese-funded projects have sparked resentment and its citizens have often been the target of attacks.
In March last year, five Chinese nationals working on a major dam construction site were killed along with their driver when a suicide bomber targeted their vehicle, which plunged into a deep ravine next to the Karakoram Mountain Highway.
Beijing is Islamabad’s closest regional ally and readily provides financial aid to bail out its often troubled neighbor.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has seen tens of billions of dollars channeled into massive transport, energy and infrastructure projects – part of China’s transnational “Belt and Road” programme.
The police statement said that “due to the proximity of the area to the Silk Road route, (the militants) pose a constant threat to the strategic road corridor and China’s development projects.”
(Vijesti.ba / FENA)
