Two men were killed in a remote-controlled bomb blast in the Momand area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur district, police said.

According to Bajaur Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Sattar Khan, the blast hit a pickup van, as a result of which its driver died on the spot and a contractor travelling in the vehicle sustained injuries.

The body and injured were taken to District Headquarters Hospital, Bajaur, where the contractor also succumbed to his injuries, the DSP said.

He said incident took place as the victims were carrying sand in the vehicle to a security check post in Bajaur.

The incident has taken place a week after a suicide bomber on a motorbike targeted a convoy in the Chehkan area of KP’s Dera Ismail Khan district, leaving at least 22 security personnel injured.

Official sources said that the convoy was en route to Minza area in South Waziristan district when it came under attack. The area was promptly cordoned off following the suicide attack.

Pakistan has seen an uptick in terror activities, especially in KP and Balochistan, after the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) ended its ceasefire with the government in November.

In his maiden press briefing last month, ISPR Director General Maj Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said that at least 293 people were martyred and 521 were injured in 436 terrorist incidents over the past year.

In KP, 192 people were martyred in 219 terror activities, while 80 people lost lives in 206 incidents in Balochistan, 14 people in five attacks in Punjab, and seven in six terrorism incidents across Sindh.

He had said that the army and law enforcement agencies carried out 8,269 intelligence-based operations during the previous year in which 1,378 suspected terrorists were apprehended and 157 were killed.

The DG ISPR had also said that overall 137 security personnel were martyred and 117 injured in anti-terror operations in the ongoing year.