Suicide bombers on Monday attacked the Federal Constabulary’s (FC) headquarters in Pakistan’s Peshawar city in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The bombing killed at least three FC soldiers and injured 11 others, according to Dawn.
A bomber blew himself up on the gate and two others tried to enter the FC’s premises but were gunned down by FC personnel, Mian Saeed Ahmad, a Peshawar police officer, told the newspaper.
Separately, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General Zulfiqar Hameed said that two of the three attackers were suicide bombers.
The attack was carried out at around 8 am local time, according to Dawn.
A hospital spokesperson said that the injured included both soldiers and civilians.
“Nine injured victims from the Saddar blast have been shifted to LRH,” Mohammad Asim, the spokesperson for Lady Reading Hospital, told The Express Tribune.
“The injured are in stable condition and are receiving medical treatment…All injured are currently out of danger, while an emergency has been declared at LRH,” said Asim.
IG Hameed said that there had been no specific threat alert regarding the attack on the FC headquarters. He, however, said that timely action allowed security personnel to bring the situation under control quickly.
Hameed added that similar attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s southern districts had recently been foiled and a province-wide security review was held last week.
Separately, a senior official told Reuters that law enforcement personnel, including the army and police, have cordoned off the area and are carefully handling the situation as we suspect there are some terrorists inside the headquarters.
Quick Reads
View AllThe attack on the FC, a federal paramilitary force, has come at a time when Pakistan has been rocked by an escalating wave of attacks from northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to southwestern Balochistan by groups like the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).
Earlier in September, an attack blamed on the TTP had killed six soldiers when attackers had struck the FC base in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district.
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