ISLAMABAD: A policeman and two suspected militants were killed in a suicide car bombing at a checkpoint in the 1-10/4 neighbourhood of Islamabad on Friday morning, police said.
“Our initial information says that there was a man and a woman in the car,” Sohail Zafar Chattha, deputy inspector general (DIG) of operations at Islamabad police, told reporters, adding the car did not stop at the checkpoint when police tried to stop it. However, later reports said the claim of presence of a woman in the car could not be verified.
“As they chased it, the people inside the car blew it up. It was a suicide blast,” he said, adding that at least six more people were injured.
Chattha, however, did not mention the number of people aboard the vehicle.
He said the policeman who intercepted the car belonged to Eagle Squad, a patrolling unit of the capital police. The two-wheeler unit was introduced in June 2021 by former prime minister Imran Khan.
TV footage showed a burning car as police officers cordoned off the neighbourhood.
Breaking News: The suspected suicide bomber blew himself up when the police stopped the taxi and searched it after receiving the report of the explosion in i-10\4 street 31 in Islamabad #Pakistan. 4 police personnel injured pic.twitter.com/FOIUgYEFEq
— Ghulam Abbas Shah (@ghulamabbasshah) December 23, 2022
No one claimed responsibility for the bombing. But Pakistan has been fighting an insurgency by the Afghanistan-based Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The militant group associates itself with Afghanistan’s Taliban, which had been trying to broker talks between Islamabad and the fighters.
TTP has stepped up attacks on security forces since November when they ended a monthslong cease-fire with Islamabad.
The United States and the United Nations have declared the TTP a global terrorist organisation. Leaders of the group and commanders have long taken refuge in the neighbouring country and direct cross-border terrorist attacks from bases there.
— With input from Reuters
