Suicide attack kills 6 at Bannu police station, TTP claims responsibility

Two bombers blew themselves up outside the police station at Kaki.

PESHAWAR: Suicide bombers attacked a police station on Monday, killing six people in the outskirts of northwestern town Bannu near the militant stronghold of North Waziristan, officials said. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack.

Two bombers blew themselves up outside the police station in Kaki, 13 kilometres southwest of Bannu. A third gunman also took part, but he escaped after the attack, the officials said.

TTP spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan said that the attack was to avenge the death of Baitullah Mehsud’s nephew who was killed by the police earlier in Bannu. The TTP vowed to continue attacks on the police.

"Three militants attacked the Kaki police station. They killed three policemen and two civilians," Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told AFP.

A senior police official, Nisar Tanoli, confirmed the attack and the toll.

"One suicide bomber blew himself up in front of the police station and killed three policemen. The other bomber tried to enter the police station from a mosque at the back. He blew himself up there there killing two civilians," he said.

Hospital officials said another civilian later died of his injuries, taking the death toll up to six.

"There were nine injured, including six policemen and three civilians. A wounded civilian later expired," Mohammed Iqbal, in charge of Bannu hospital, told AFP.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Pakistani Taliban have frequently targeted security forces with bomb and gun attacks as part of a five-year insurgency concentrated in the northwest.

Bannu lies close to Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal district of North Waziristan, the most infamous militant bastion on the Afghan border that US officials say is used as a launchpad for attacks in Afghanistan.