At least nine people killed in explosion at Pakistan market

An explosion in a busy market in northwestern Pakistan has killed at least nine people and wounded 30, according to emergency workers and a medical official.

The blast on Tuesday was caused by a bomb-laden rickshaw in Pakistan’s town of Sarai Naurang, in Lakki Marwat district, a region close to the border with Afghanistan, said police. Two traffic police and a woman are among those killed, according to local police chief Azmat Ullah.

The emergency response agency ⁠Rescue 1122 said about 30 people were wounded and those with serious injuries had been rushed to hospitals in Bannu.

Mohammad Ishaq, the medical superintendent of THQ Hospital, said they had received 37 patients so far and some of them were in ‌critical ‌condition.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came days after 21 police officers were killed in a bombing and gun assault on a security post in the nearby Bannu district.

Pakistan blamed the Pakistan Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, for the assault. The group is separate from but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban government and has intensified its campaign against Pakistani security forces in recent years.

The Afghan Taliban administration on Tuesday rejected the allegation.

“Pakistani officials’ latest remarks, which claim ⁠that an attack on ⁠a police centre in Bannu was ⁠planned in ⁠Afghanistan, are considered ⁠baseless and rejected,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said ‌in a post on X.

Pakistani authorities have long accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of sheltering TTP fighters. Kabul has denied the allegation, saying it does not allow any attacks to be launched against other countries from its soil.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in violence in recent years, with the TTP and other armed groups growing more emboldened since the Afghan Taliban’s return to power in Kabul.

Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have escalated in recent months, and the two sides have engaged in fighting that has killed hundreds of people since late February. In early April, China mediated negotiations aimed at ending the violence, but sporadic cross-border clashes have continued, though at a lower intensity than before the talks.