Six killed in suicide attack on security complex in Pakistan’s Peshawar
Three fighters and three security personnel killed in attack on the Federal Constabulary headquarters in Peshawar, media reports say.
Three suicide attackers have attacked the headquarters of a paramilitary force in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing at least three security personnel and wounding several others.
The Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, which is a splinter group of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or the Pakistan Taliban, claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack on the headquarters of the Federal Constabulary (FC).
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The TTP is separate from the Taliban that governs Afghanistan, but they are allies.
“Initially, three militants tried to attack the headquarters,” Peshawar Capital City Police Officer Mian Saeed Ahmad told the Dawn newspaper.
“One bomber blew himself up on the gate while two others tried to enter the premises but were gunned down by FC personnel,” he added.
Asim Khan, a spokesperson at the government-run Lady Reading Hospital, was quoted by The Associated Press news agency as saying all 11 people wounded in the attack were listed in stable condition.
Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Peshawar, said the attackers were trying to target more than 400 security personnel who were conducting a parade at the headquarters.
“Senior officials were expected at that particular headquarters, so the attackers were trying to maximise the number of casualties,” Hyder said.
“However, they were intercepted, … and all three were killed, and in the process, three security forces personnel also died,” he said.
Hyder added that the public has been apprehensive due to a recent spike in attacks in Pakistan as the security forces have ramped up their operations against TTP members, killing dozens of them in the past several days.
The targeted headquarters is located in a densely populated area of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Pakistani leaders slam attack
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in separate statements, condemned the attack.
Zardari called it a “cowardly act by foreign-backed terrorists”.
In a post on X, he offered “heartfelt condolences” and praised the courage of the security forces.
Sharif said the swift response of security forces prevented a larger tragedy, adding: “We will thwart the evil designs of terrorists who attack Pakistan’s integrity.”
The latest attack came less than two weeks after a suicide bomber struck outside a court in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, detonating explosives next to a police car and killing 12 people.
The violence has strained ties between Islamabad and Afghanistan’s Taliban government. Pakistan accuses the Pakistan Taliban of operating freely inside Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in 2021.
