ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s military said a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a security convoy in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing two soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel.
The attack was said to have occurred in the Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where security forces have been battling militants for years.
The military said Pakistan would not “exercise any restraint” and operations against those responsible for the violence would continue “wherever they are”, appearing to indicate rising tensions between Islamabad and Kabul.
No group has claimed responsibility, but suspicion may fall on the Pakistani Taliban, who have previously been blamed for such attacks. There was no immediate statement from the Afghan government.
Two days ago, Pakistan’s foreign ministry summoned a senior Afghan diplomat and expressed strong protest over the recent deadly attack on a security post in Bajaur district near the Afghan border that killed 11 Pakistani soldiers and a girl.
Local police said the man who carried out the attack in Bajaur was Afghan.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the bombings in separate statements and praised the sacrifices of Lieutenant Colonel Shehzad Gul and Seepoi Karamat Shah.
Pakistan has seen a surge in armed violence in recent years, much of it blamed on the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the outlawed Balochistan group. The TTP is independent but closely related to the Afghan Taliban, which returned to power in 2021. Islamabad accuses the TTP of operating in Afghanistan, a charge both the group and Kabul deny.
Relations between the neighbors have been tense since October, when deadly border clashes left dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants dead. After the bombing in Kabul, Afghan officials blamed Pakistan for the violence. A Qatar-brokered ceasefire has largely been achieved, but subsequent talks in Istanbul failed to reach a formal agreement and relations between the two countries remain tense.