Police stand guard at a checkpost in Bannu. Karim Ullah—AFP
Roadside bomb targeted Frontier Corps convoy traveling from Hangu to Kurram district.
A roadside bomb on Wednesday killed six soldiers in Pakistan’s troubled northwest, officials said, the latest violence to hit the country since a ceasefire between the government and Taliban insurgents began.
The remote-controlled device hit a convoy of the paramilitary Frontier Corps as it was moving from the town of Hangu to Kurram district, one of seven tribal areas along the Afghan border where militants have strongholds.
A security official in Peshawar said the blast killed six soldiers and wounded eight. The Ansar-ul-Mujahideen militant group, which has been active in the tribal areas for around three years, later claimed responsibility.
The group’s spokesman, Abu Baseer, said: “We have carried out this attack to avenge drone victims. We are not part of the Pakistani Taliban so we aren’t bound by their ceasefire.”
The Pakistani Taliban announced a month-long ceasefire on Saturday in a bid to restart stalled peace talks with the government. The military halted airstrikes on suspected militant hideouts in response.
A major attack on a court complex in Islamabad on Monday that killed 11 has cast doubt on the ceasefire, although the Taliban denied responsibility for the attack.