Three people were killed and 23 injured Wednesday when a suicide bomber targeted a police truck in western Pakistan, an official said, an attack claimed by the domestic chapter of the Taliban.
The Pakistan Taliban — known as Tehreek–e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — are separate from the Taliban in Afghanistan but share a common hardline Islamist ideology.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on a police truck in Quetta which resulted in 3 deaths and over 27 injuries.#Pakistan #Afghanistan #Balochistan #TTP #AfPak #Quetta @Natsecjeff pic.twitter.com/257AffWr1m
— Raja Furqan Ahmed (@furqanraja1122) November 30, 2022
On Monday, the group announced an end to a shaky ceasefire with Islamabad declared over the summer and ordered nationwide attacks to resume.
Senior police official Azhar Mehesar told AFP the blast targeted a police team that killed three people preparing to escort polio vaccinators in the city of Quetta and that those killed “include a policeman, a woman and a child”.
QUETTA: A suicide bombing targeted Pakistani para military forces in Quetta killing at least 5 soldiers and wounded dozens more. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claims responsibility. This comes two days after TTP announced an end to a ceasefire with the govt. #Quetta #Pakistan pic.twitter.com/7llneSE3es
— Seyyed Zabiullah Langari (@syed2000) November 30, 2022
In a statement to AFP, the TTP claimed responsibility for the attack and said it would soon share further details.
The group was founded in 2007 by Pakistani jihadists who fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan in the 1990s before opposing Islamabad’s support for American intervention there after 9/11.
For a time they held vast tracts of Pakistan’s rugged tribal belt, imposing a radical interpretation of Islamic law and patrolling territory just 140 kilometres (85 miles) from the Pakistan capital.
At least 22 people, including 16 FC personnel, were injured in a Suicide attack in the Baleli area of #Quetta. 5 reportedly killed in this powerful blast. #BalochistanIsNotPakistan
pic.twitter.com/9ffq4WcxCG— (((7ru7h_1))) (@7ru7h_001) November 30, 2022
Its fighters were largely routed into neighbouring Afghanistan, but Islamabad claims the Taliban in Kabul are now giving the TTP a foothold to stage assaults across the border.
In the year since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, Pakistan has seen a 50 percent surge in militant attacks, according to the Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS).
Most of these attacks have been focused in the western provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, which neighbour Afghanistan.
The 2014 school assault deeply shocked Pakistan, and since then the TTP have vowed only to target state security forces.
وزیراعظم اور وزیر داخلہ کی کوئٹہ دھماکے کی مذمت #suchtv #Quetta @RanaSanaullahPK https://t.co/o6zj3tPI2X
— SUCH News (@SUCHTVNews) November 30, 2022
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only nations in the world where wild polio is still endemic.
Polio vaccination teams are routinely escorted by police in the western regions, and the TTP has made a habit of ambushing officers as they travel into those restive remote areas.
Pakistan officials on Monday launched a week-long immunisation campaign aiming to inoculate over 13 million children living in “high-risk districts”.
Read more: Mediated ceasefire between Pakistan, TTP: Taliban
In April, Pakistan reported its first case of polio in 15 months. Since then 20 cases have been reported, according to the government-funded End Polio Pakistan programme.
AFP story with additional input by Global Village Space news desk.