At least four people were injured on Friday in a blast in the Geelay area in the Mamund Tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur district, police said.

According to Mamund Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Sattar Khan, a vehicle was targeted. He added that the bomb was detonated via remote control.

The injured were taken to the Khar district headquarters (DHQ) hospital there, the DSP added.

Meanwhile, Bajaur District Police Officer (DPO) Nazeer Khan told Dawn.com that the passengers were heading home after the Friday afternoon prayers when the bomb was detonated.

The DPO further said that following the incident, the police had cordoned off the area.

He added that an investigation was under way but the reason behind the victims being targeted could not yet be ascertained.

The blast comes a day after five policemen were martyred in two separate attacks in KP while 12 people, including nine policemen, were injured.

Terrorists had attacked an official compound in the Bara Bazaar in the Khyber district while a police post in Peshawar’s Regi Model Town area had come under attack.

Uptick in terror activities

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

A report released this month by think tank Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies said the first half of the current year witnessed a steady and alarming rise in terror and suicide attacks, claiming the lives of 389 people across the country.

More than a week ago, as many as 12 soldiers of the Pakistan Army embraced martyrdom in two attacks on the military in the Zhob and Sui areas of Balochistan, which was the military’s highest single-day death toll from terrorist attacks reported this year.

Seven “heavily armed” militants were also killed in retaliatory action.

Two days after the incidents, the army expressed “serious concerns” about the “safe havens and liberty of action available” to the TTP in Afghanistan.

“It is expected that the interim Afghan government would not allow the use of its soil to perpetrate terror against any country, in the real sense and in line with commitments made in the Doha agreement,” an Inter-Service Public Relations statement said.

“The involvement of Afghan nationals in acts of terrorism in Pakistan is another important concern that needs to be addressed. Such attacks are intolerable and would elicit an effective response from the security forces of Pakistan,” it added.

The army top brass reiterated the assertion again at the 258th Corps Commanders’ Conference while Defence Minister Khawaja Asif also accused the Afghan Taliban of not honouring their commitments under the Doha accord, i.e. that they would not allow Afghan soil to be used against others.

Previously too, Islamabad had repeatedly raised concerns over the use of Afghan soil by militants for cross-border terrorism.

In response to the recent concerns raised by the army and government, Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid disputed the statements from the Pakistani side, saying: “We do not allow them (TTP) to live and operate in Afghanistan. We have faced consequences of wars and do not want others to suffer like Afghanistan.”

But in a separate interview with BBC Pashto, Mujahid took a harsher line — ostensibly in a bid to play to the Afghan galleries — advising Pakistan to resolve its internal problems itself, instead of pointing fingers at others.

In a press conference in June, Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Maj Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said that the security forces conducted 13,619 intelligence operations this year in which 1,172 terrorists were killed or arrested.

“On a daily basis, over 77 operations are being carried out by armed forces, police, intelligence agencies, and other law enforcement agencies to rid of the menace of terrorism,” he said.

DG Sharif added that 95 soldiers embraced martyrdom in these operations.

Additional reporting from Murad Ali Khan