A Taliban suicide bomber was killed during an intelligence-based operation by the security forces in Pakistan’s northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, police said.
The operation was conducted in the Spinkai area of South Waziristan district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province after intelligence confirmed the presence of the suicide bomber belonging to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Upon receiving information about the presence of the bomber, the forces rushed to a village in the district and encircled the suspected compound.
“The bomber was killed after the explosives wrapped around his body exploded during an exchange of fire with the security forces. The bomber came from the Logar province of Afghanistan,” security sources said.
The outlawed TTP, known as the Pakistani Taliban, has carried out a number of suicide attacks in the past, targeting security personnel.
The TTP, set up as an umbrella group of several militant outfits in 2007, called off a ceasefire with the federal government and ordered its militants to stage terrorist attacks across the country.
The group, which is believed to be close to al-Qaeda, has been blamed for several deadly attacks across Pakistan, including an attack on army headquarters in 2009, assaults on military bases, and the 2008 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.
In 2014, the Pakistani Taliban stormed the Army Public School (APS) in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing at least 150 people, including 131 students. The attack sent shockwaves across the world and was widely condemned.
