PAKISTAN COUNTERTERRORISM OFFICE BLASTS KILL AT LEAST 12

Mon 24 Apr 2023:

At least 12 people have been killed and more than 50 others have been injured after two blasts rocked a counterterrorism facility in northwest Pakistan, according to authorities.

According to Sharifullah Khan, a police official in Kabal, at least 12 persons were killed and more than 50 injured in Monday’s explosions at the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) in the Swat Valley of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

He added that he doesn’t believe the blasts were caused by “terrorism”. The “explosions occurred after explosive material in the CTD building’s basement caught fire”, he said.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of Police Akhtar Hayat Khan said security officials were on “high alert” throughout the province. 

Pakistan Counterterrorism office blasts kill at least 12

Two explosions have rocked a counterterrorism facility in northwest Pakistan, killing at least 12 people and injuring more than 50 others.#SwatBlast

پاکستان سوات pic.twitter.com/lBDwTPsXk7

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) April 24, 2023

Meanwhile, the provincial health department imposed a state of emergency at hospitals in Swat. 

CTD DIG Khalid Sohail told Geo News that the blast was “not a suicide attack”.

“There was no attack or firing on the police station. The explosion occurred at a place where ammunition and mortar shells were stored.”

He further said that the cause of the explosion — whether negligence or something else — was being investigated. Bomb disposal squads were also conducting an investigation, he added.

Consequently, government officials condemned the blast and vowed to defeat terrorism. 

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the blast. He expressed grief over the lives lost and prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured. 

He also directed authorities to submit a report regarding the incident, according to Radio Pakistan. 

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah condemned the blast and expressed sadness over the lives lost. “This scourge of terrorism will be uprooted soon,” he asserted. 

Uptick in attacks

In January, a suicide bomber detonated his vest in a mosque inside a police compound in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing more than 80 officers as the building collapsed and rained down rubble on worshippers.

Since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic uptick in attacks focused on its border regions with the country. Islamabad says offensives are being launched from Afghan soil.

The TTP was founded in 2007, when Pakistani militants fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan splintered off to focus attacks on Islamabad as payback for supporting the United States invasion after the 9/11 attacks.

They controlled swaths of northwest Pakistan including the Swat Valley at the height of their power, but were largely routed by the military after a 2014 school raid that killed nearly 150 people, mostly pupils.

The Swat Valley was also where then-15-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by the TTP in 2012 while lobbying for girls’ education, a campaign that later earned her the Nobel Peace Prize.