ISLAMABAD: Two persons were killed in separate incidents of violence in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, police said on Sunday, underscoring persistent security challenges in the restive region bordering Afghanistan.
In the first incident, unidentified gunmen shot Malik Ziaur Rehman, a social activist, near his residence in Salarzai tehsil of Bajaur district, according to a police spokesman.
Rehman succumbed to his injuries after being shifted to a local hospital.
“Police are probing the incident but Rehman’s family has been attacked in past, and his father was also killed in armed attack a few years ago,” Bajaur police spokesman Israr Khan told Arab News.
In another incident, a man, identified as Sayed Door, was killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated in Bajaur’s Asil Targaoo area.
“No group has so far claimed responsibility for the blast,” Khan said, adding that investigations were underway to determine whether the two attacks were linked to militant activity.
Pakistan’s KP province, which borders Afghanistan, has been grappling with a surge in militancy since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021, with attacks, particularly by the Pakistani Taliban, frequently targeting security forces, law enforcers, government officials and civilians.
Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of allowing the use of its soil for cross-border attacks against Pakistan, an allegation denied by Kabul. Both neighbors have been locked in a conflict for months over the surge in attacks, with dozens killed and hundreds displaced on both sides.
