Two explosions at a compound for counterterrorism police in northern Pakistan killed at the very least 15 folks and wounded dozens late Monday, police officers mentioned, after months of elevated terrorist assaults which have raised alarms throughout the nation.
Pakistani Taliban militants have repeatedly focused the police, notably counterterrorism division officers, in latest months. And the world the place the assault occurred, the Swat Valley of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, has seen a notable improve in militant exercise.
However some investigators insisted there was no proof that the lethal blasts — which additionally wounded at the very least 57 folks, based on native officers — have been attributable to an assault. Police officers mentioned the detonation occurred within the basement of the police compound, the place mortar shells and different weapons and munitions captured from militants had been saved, and that an electrical short-circuit or some spontaneous detonation might have induced the explosions.
Nasir Mehmood Satti, a deputy inspector common of police, mentioned preliminary investigations pointed to “carelessness.”
The primary highly effective explosion compelled the roof of the compound’s essential construction to collapse and broken a close-by mosque and some homes within the city, Kabal. A number of police officers have been trapped below the rubble of the police station and have been pulled out, officers mentioned.
In response to police officers, the constructing had been in a decrepit state, and most of its personnel and tools had not too long ago been relocated.
The wounded have been moved to totally different hospitals in Swat, native well being officers mentioned. The Well being Division of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa declared a well being emergency in Swat and positioned all hospitals on pink alert.
Because the Afghan Taliban’s takeover of neighboring Afghanistan in 2021, the Pakistani Taliban — Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, also called the T.T.P. — have staged a comeback in a number of components of Pakistan and have waged an more and more intense marketing campaign in opposition to the safety forces.
Murad Saeed, a former member of Parliament who’s affiliated with former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf celebration, insisted that the explosion needed to have been a terrorist assault.
“The assault is much like the one which focused police in Peshawar,” Mr. Saeed mentioned in a video message, referring to the suicide bombing within the provincial capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa this yr that killed greater than 100 folks.
A gaggle of activists in Swat additionally rejected the police’s claims, calling the explosion an act of terrorism and declaring that they’d arrange a protest within the valley on Tuesday.
“Right now’s protest will present that Swat’s persons are peace-loving folks and won’t enable any parts, whether or not it’s the Taliban or the state, to sabotage the hard-earned peace anymore,” mentioned Zaman Shah, 32, a resident of Kabal.
Swat, a picturesque northern valley, has lengthy carried scars from terrorism, and from the ensuing navy campaigns to stamp it out.
Swat had been a well-liked vacationer vacation spot earlier than it fell into the fingers of the Taliban in late 2007. The militants imposed their harsh model of Islam on the native inhabitants, killed group leaders, blew up women’ faculties, and compelled males to develop beards and attend prayers — at instances flogging and even beheading accused wrongdoers in public.
In 2009, the Pakistani navy launched a large navy offensive in opposition to the militants in Swat and efficiently wrested management of the territory from them after months of combating.
Swat can also be house to Malala Yousafzai, an activist for ladies’ training within the area who survived an assassination try by the Taliban in 2012. Ms. Yousafzai, who was 15 years previous on the time of the assault, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for her advocacy work.
Final August, teams of armed militants have been reported to be reappearing in some components of Swat, reigniting fears amongst residents of the area. The navy burdened that the studies of Taliban resurgence within the valley have been exaggerated, however issues have been already rising even earlier than the lethal blasts this week.
Salman Masood reported from Islamabad, and Zia ur-Rehman from Karachi.