A roadside explosion in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has killed three police officers and injured two others, authorities said Wednesday, heightening tensions along the volatile Afghan border.
The blast, initially reported as caused by an improvised explosive device (IED), occurred near Dera Ismail Khan. Ali Hamza, a local police official, told AFP the attack was part of a continuing cycle of violence in the region.
While no group immediately claimed responsibility, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi pointed to the Pakistan Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a faction that has long carried out attacks in the province. Police officer Kamal Khan later confirmed that a TTP faction had claimed responsibility, according to AFP.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused Afghanistan of providing safe havens to TTP fighters since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, a claim Kabul denies.
Violence along the border has spiked since October, when clashes killed dozens of people in the worst fighting since the Taliban assumed power. While a ceasefire has largely held, mistrust remains high.
Kabul has accused Pakistan of carrying out airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan, while Pakistan has faced a surge of domestic attacks, including a suicide bombing at an Islamabad court that killed 12 and an assault on a paramilitary headquarters in Peshawar. Authorities arrested four members of an Afghan-linked TTP cell in connection with the Islamabad bombing.
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Amid the latest attack, Reuters reported that Pakistan and Afghanistan held fresh peace talks in Saudi Arabia. Officials said the parties agreed to maintain the existing ceasefire, with one Afghan official indicating Kabul’s willingness to continue discussions toward a lasting agreement.
Previous negotiations in Doha in October produced a ceasefire, but follow-up talks in Istanbul last month failed to secure a long-term deal. Pakistan continues to demand that Afghanistan take concrete action against TTP militants, while Kabul maintains it cannot guarantee security beyond its borders.
The attack shows the fragile security situation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and t⊂he ongoing challenge of curbing militant violence in the region.