Three soldiers and three children were killed in an attack by a suicide bomber on a military vehicle in northwestern Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan, the Pakistani army announced on Sunday.
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The suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest as a Pakistani army vehicle passed through a market in Miran Shah, North Waziristan province, just 25 km from the Afghan border.
Three children, aged 4 to 11, and three soldiers were killed in this "
suicide attack
", according to the Pakistani army.
“
The suicide bomber arrived on foot and blew himself up when a security force vehicle passed by
,” a local government official told AFP, on condition of anonymity.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement that the “
murderers of innocent children are the enemies of humanity and of Islam
”.
“
We will not be at peace until we hunt down these barbarians and those who support them
,” he added.
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The attack has not been claimed.
But the Pakistani Taliban of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have long been active in this border area, where they operate across the porous border between the two countries.
Pakistan accuses the Taliban of letting the TTP use Afghan soil to plan its attacks, which Kabul has repeatedly denied.
A distinct group from the Afghan Taliban, but driven by the same ideology and a long common history, the TTP carried out countless attacks that bloodied Pakistan between its creation in 2007 and 2014.
Then weakened by intense army operations, it has been back in force for more than a year, forcing Islamabad to open negotiations, accompanied by a ceasefire, at the end of last year for the first times since 2014, with the mediation of the Afghan Taliban.
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These discussions came to nothing.
But the TTP earlier this month declared a new ceasefire for the Islamic holiday of Eid, which has been extended until May 16.
A letter from the TTP describing the truce, seen by AFP, asked the fighters "
not to violate the decision taken by the central command
".
The TTP aggregates different currents, which do not always respect all the decisions taken by the group's management.
Pakistani police also announced on Sunday that two Sikh traders had been killed by two armed men on a motorcycle in the suburbs of Peshawar (northwest), 30 km from the Afghan border.
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