7 killed after car bomb accidently explodes in former stronghold of Pakistani Taliban

A powerful car bomb exploded accidentally inside a house in the former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in northwest Pakistan, killing at least two children and five suspected militants, police said on Thursday.

The explosion occurred before dawn in the city of Mir Ali, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, when a militant, identified as Commander Rasool Jan, was attempting to fit a bomb into a car at his home, said Irfan Khan, a local police official.

According to Khan, the Pakistani Taliban arrived quickly at the scene and removed the bodies of the slain militants. Authorities later discovered the bodies of two children trapped in the rubble of the house, which collapsed due to the blast.

The explosion also caused significant damage to several nearby homes and injured 14 people, including women. Some of the injured are reported to be in critical condition, though further details have not been provided.

Khan speculated that the car bomb was intended for use in an attack in the region, where the Pakistani Taliban and other insurgent groups frequently target security forces using assault rifles, rockets, grenades, and suicide car bombings.

In a separate incident on Thursday, a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle set off an explosive device prematurely on a deserted road in Charsadda district, killing himself but causing no other casualties, police said.

Masood Khan, a local police official, stated that the intended target of the suicide bomber remained unclear. Bomb disposal experts and investigators are trying to determine whether the explosives were attached to the bomber’s motorcycle or if he was carrying them himself.

The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is a separate group from the Afghan Taliban but has been emboldened by the latter’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.