17 killed in bus bombing in northwestern Pakistan

Seventeen Pakistanis were killed in a bus bombing in Pakistan’s violent northwest. The attack is the latest in an area adjacent to the Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan.

The blast took place on a minibus in the district of Hangu as it traveled from the neighboring district of Kohat. All 15 people on the bus were killed, while two others on a nearby bus were killed and 10 more were wounded in the blast, which was caused by an explosive charge placed on the vehicle’s propane fuel source.

“The report of the bomb disposal squad shows that explosive materials fitted with a timer were placed near the gas cylinders which caused the explosion,” Abdul Rashid, the district police chief for Hangu, told AFP. More than 20 pounds of explosives were said to have been used in the bomb.

No groups has taken credit for the attack, but the Taliban or its ally, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, are the prime suspects. Both terror groups have attacked civilians in the region.

Hangu borders the tribal agency of North Waziristan, the headquarters of al Qaeda, the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, and a host of allied South and Central Asian jihadist groups. The Pakistani military has refused numerous US and NATO requests to move against the terror groups there.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks in the districts that border North Waziristan. Over the past two months, the Taliban have hit a market in Kohat , a hospital in Hangu, and a police station in Bannu. More than 50 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the attacks.

The Taliban have also carried out a string of lower-level attacks in the area, including a raid on a home in Bannu that killed a policewoman and five relatives, and an IED attack in Bannu that killed three policemen. The Taliban have claimed credit for carrying out most of the attacks.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

Tags: Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Pakistan, Taliban