MIRAMSHAH, July 14: Twenty-four soldiers were killed and 26 others wounded in North Waziristan on Saturday after a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed car into a convoy of the Frontier Constabulary.

The attack coincided with a dramatic surge in attacks on government and security agencies’ installations across the NWFP, including a failed attempt to detonate a car bomb in Peshawar near a bank run by armed forces personnel.

The escalation in violence came barely a day after local religious hardliners vowed to ‘avenge the Lal Masjid killings’.

A senior government official told Dawn in Peshawar that a car laden with explosives ploughed into a patrol vehicle of Shawal Scouts, who were escorting the FC soldiers, in Razmak town’s Daznaray area, 20kms to the north of Miramshah.

Military spokesman Maj-Gen Waheed Arshad said all those killed were from the paramilitary force, while five of the wounded were from the army.

He said it was too early to link the attack to the Islamabad operation or to the military takeover of checkpoints it had abandoned in North Waziristan following a controversial agreement with militants in September last year.

“It could be anything,” Gen Waheed said. “But we would know the cause (of upsurge in violence) once we complete our investigations.”

This was the second deadliest suicide bombing to hit the NWFP since Pakistan allied itself with the United States in the ‘war on terrorism’ in 2001.

Forty-two army recruits had died when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a recruitment centre in Dargai, Malakand, in November last year.

The suicide bombing, the second against a security agency in North Waziristan this week, followed threats by militants to carry out attacks on the army if it did not vacate the checkpoints by Sunday.

The fate of the controversial Sept 5 agreement now hangs in the balance. Members of the tribal peace committee set up to monitor the implementation of the agreement resigned in May. They have accused the government of violating the terms of the agreement, following a raid on a suspected militant hideout.

Sources in North Waziristan said militants had abandoned their office in Miramshah after Saturday’s suicide bombing and were no longer patrolling the market.

They said people living in and around Miramshah had started evacuating to safe places as rumours swirled of a military operation against militants.

In another attack, unidentified men riding in a car fired at security forces near Esha checkpoint in North Waziristan, wounding a paramilitary soldier. Officials said that security forces had defused two missiles near Saidgi area.

Our correspondent adds from Bannu: Two soldiers were injured when a military vehicle hit a roadside improvised device near Bannu airport, police said. The army vehicle, a part of a convoy, was going from Miramshah to Bannu.

Our correspondent adds from Timergara: Army troops also came under rocket attack in Lower Dir district’s Chakdara area on Friday night, but there were no casualties.

Police said two rockets were fired at the campus of the Malakand University, in Chakdara, where some 2,000 troops had been deployed over the past week. One rocket hit an electricity tower near the campus, while the other one landed in a nearby field.

Officials said police arrested 45 people, including two employees of the university and Afghan nationals, on suspicion.

Security was tightened around the campus and the authorities started subjecting students to body search.

A large number of troops were seen heading towards Timergara, the headquarters of the Lower Dir district.

Peshawar Bureau adds: Two anti-tank mines and detonators, batteries and a clock were found in a burning car parked outside a branch of the Askari Bank, near the Cantonment Board office.

An official of the bomb disposal squad said the car (registration number Sindh-AEG 622) had been laden with anti-tank mines hooked to batteries, detonator and a time device.

Each mine was packed with explosives weighing between 4.5kg and 5kg, the official said.

The area was immediately cordoned off and a bomb disposal squad called in, police said.

Thirty people have been killed in the NWFP and the tribal region in suicide bombings, roadside explosions, ambushes and rocket attacks since July 3 — the day the Lal Masjid operation began.

A government official, conceding that the province had seen an alarming increase in violence, said the government was contemplating ‘action to overcome the growing militancy’.

“Troops have been deployed and an action plan is being put in place,” he said.