Mardan blast claims three lives

MARDAN:

At least three people were killed and seven others injured on Friday in a bomb blast near Jalala bridge in the Takht Bhai tehsil of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Mardan district.

District Police Officer Zahoor Babar Afridi said a remote-controlled device exploded immediately after a police vehicle passed over the bridge.

Confirming the casualties, the official explained that the people who died in the blast were travelling in a rickshaw, which was damaged along with the police vehicle.

He added that the seven people injured in the explosion included two police officers.

According to Rescue 1122 sources, ambulances and medical teams promptly arrived at the scene, transporting the bodies and injured to hospitals.

The injured civilians were admitted to Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Takhtbhai while the policemen hurt in the blast were rushed to Mardan Medical Complex.

Police have begun

collecting evidence from the site and launched an investigation into the incident.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi issued a statement on social media platform X to condemn the attack.

The minister also extended his condolences to the families of the victims.

In a separate statement, K-P Governor Faisal Karim Kundi also condemned the blast and expressed his sympathies with the victims’ families.

Separately, security forces killed a commander of a terrorist outfit, Noor Rehman alias Anas, in an operation conducted in Spinwam Tehsil of North Waziristan near the Pak-Afghan border.

The slain militant commander was wanted by the state for his involvement in several terrorist activities.

He was killed by the security forces while crossing the Pak-Afghan border.

(With input from our correspondent in Peshawar)