PESHAWAR: A Fron­tier Corps (FC) soldier embraced martyrdom and nine others, including three civilians, sustained injuries in a roadside explosion on the outskirts of Peshawar on Monday, police said.

The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for carrying out the attack.

The FC convoy of Mohmand Rifles was on its way from Michni area of district Mohmand towards the Khyber Pakhtun­kh­wa’s capital when an Imp­rovised Explosive Device (IED) went off on Warsak Road, the police said.

“Although the incident is being investigated by the counterterrorism department of police, it looks like the IED was [concealed] inside a concrete block mostly used for dividing roads,” Warsak Division Superintendent of Police Arshad Khan told Dawn.

IED attack claimed by banned TTP

He quoted the bomb disposal unit officials as saying that five kilograms of explosive material was used in the attack.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, later confirmed that the IED explosion. “Consequently, 29-year-old Lance Naik Abdur Rehman, resident of district Bannu, embraced shahadat, while three soldiers got injured. This cowardly terrorist act also resulted in injury of three innocent civilians,” the ISPR statement read, adding that sanitisation of the area was being carried out to eliminate terrorists and their facilitators.

On the other hand, the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) in a statement pointed out that nine injured persons were brought to the facility. “The FC personnel have been shifted to Combined Military Hospital, Peshawar,” the statement quoted spokesperson LRH Mohammad Asim as saying.

The blast site was immediately cordoned off by the law enforcement agencies and a search operation was launched in the area following the attack.

Earlier on Sunday, caretaker federal interior minister Sarfraz Bugti said Afghan soil was being used against Pakistan to foment violence, adding that the banned TTP’s attack [referring to last week’s attack in Chitral] was launched from Afghanistan.

He said the government had yet to ascertain whether only members of the banned TTP carried out the attack or Afghan nationals, too, were involved in it.

Attacks against the security forces, paramilitary forces and police have accelerated since November 28, 2022 when the banned outfit called off a ceasefire, announced in June.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2023