Bombing kills 2 paramilitary forces in Pakistan

A bomb attack has targeted a vehicle carrying paramilitary forces in northwestern Pakistan, killing two personnel, police say.

A man riding a motorcycle approached the moving vehicle in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and detonated his explosives on Monday, said Senior Superintendent of Police Imran Malik.

The two killed were enlisted with the Frontier Corps. One was a major. Three other forces were also injured. So were seven civilians.

The assailant, who had been carrying at least 10 kilograms of explosives, reportedly rode his motorcycle to the side of the vehicle where the major was seated.

On Sunday, the Pakistani army launched operation 'Khyber-IV' in the Rajgal Valley of Khyber Agency to cleanse the area of Daesh terrorists. The Frontier Corps were assigned to carry out that operation. The corps operate in Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

Daesh has had a presence in Afghanistan for a relatively short time, but its emergence in Pakistan is an even newer development.

It was not clear if the terrorist who carried out the Monday bombing was with Daesh or another militant group.

Pakistani army official Major General Asif Ghafoor said on Sunday that the Khyber-IV operation was meant to prevent Daesh from gaining a foothold in Pakistan.

“We will not allow them to establish themselves. In Afghanistan, yes, it is getting stronger, but we don’t believe it is the same as the Daesh in the Middle East,” he said.

The Takfiri Daesh terrorist group has been mainly operating in Syria and Iraq. It has managed to recruit forces from militant groups already active in Afghanistan to form splinter groups.

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