At least five people have been killed as a bomb explosion rocked a court complex in northern Pakistan, the latest in a string of attacks which have claimed more than 100 lives over the past 10 days.
According to Pakistani police, three bombers attacked a court complex in the Tangi area of Charsadda district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province on Monday.
Police officials said two of the assailants were killed by security forces, while the third one detonated his explosives outside the main gates of the busy complex.
“So far five people have been killed and 15 wounded,” said district police chief Sohail Khalid, adding a lawyer was among the dead.
“Bomb disposal experts told us that each bomber was wearing seven to eight kilograms of explosives,” Khalid said. “Police fought bravely and saved Charsadda from devastation.”
Asad Mansoor, a spokesman for the Jamaat-ur-Ahrar faction of the Pakistani Taliban militant group, claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's office denounced the latest explosion.
“We are a steadfast nation and will not be deterred by such attacks. Our government will continue to fight against terrorist elements and we will succeed,” his office said in a statement.
The news comes as a new wave of attacks claimed the lives of scores of people over the past 10 days.
The deadliest assault was a Daesh-claimed bombing that targeted a shrine in the country’s southern province of Sindh on Thursday, leaving about 90 people dead and over 350 others wounded.
In the wake of the attacks, Pakistan launched nationwide security raids, arresting and killing dozens of suspected militants.
Army aircraft have also been carrying out strikes on militant hideouts along the border with Afghanistan.
On Monday, Islamabad’s military warplanes bombed militant hideouts in the Wucha Bibi area of North Waziristan along the Afghan border, killing “dozens” of militants, the army said in a statement.
Pakistan says the militants who orchestrated the recent attacks in the country have fled to North Waziristan.
The military also fired artillery shells at suspected terrorist camps in Afghanistan on Friday and Saturday after giving the Afghan government a list of 76 alleged Pakistani terrorists it said where sheltering there.
Hundreds of Afghan families have been displaced due to cross-border shelling by Pakistani troops.
The Express Tribune newspaper also reported on Monday that Pakistan has moved its heavy artillery to the border with Afghanistan and increased patrols in the area to curb militants’ movement between the two countries and preserve security.
