Pakistan court blasts kill at least 14, wound dozens
Earlier in the day, four gunmen wearing suicide-bomb vests attacked a Christian neighbourhood in the Khyber tribal region
Pakistani local residents inspect the site of a suicide bomb attack
at a district court in Mardan, killing at least 14 people. Hours earlier, militants from a Pakistani Taliban faction attacked a Christian neighbourhood in the same region, killing one civilian. The bodies of lawyers, policemen and civilians were recovered from the blast site, said Haris Habib, chief rescue officer in the city of Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. A local police official, Ijaz Ahmed Khan, said the attacker apparently wanted to target a gathering of lawyers at the bar room but was thwarted by police. When a policeman asked the attacker to stop, the attacker threw a grenade at him, killing the officer, Khan said. A second policeman then opened fire at the attacker, who detonated his explosives. Photo: AFP
The Islamist group, which briefly declared allegiance to Middle East-based Islamic State in 2014 but recently said it was no longer affiliated with them, also staged the Easter Day attack on Christians in a park in Lahore that killed 72 people including at least 29 children.
On Friday, the military’s information wing said one security guard in the Christian residential area, near the northwestern city of Peshawar, was killed at the beginning of the dawn attack.
The attackers exchanged fire with security forces and were killed, the military said, adding that the situation was under control.
