Pakistan: 14 killed, 25 wounded in bombings & gunfight in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

At least 14 people were on Monday killed and 25 injured in two bomb attacks and a shooting in Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

A security official told AFP that a suicide bomber on Monday evening rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the wall of a religious college in Bajaur district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing eight security forces personnel and injuring others.

“As a result, eight police and Frontier Corps personnel present inside the seminary were martyred and 10 others injured. The blast also caused the roofs of several nearby houses to collapse, killing a child,” the official said.

In the second bomb attack in the Bannu town, a bomb planted in a rickshaw exploded at the Miryan police station and killed two civilians and injured 17 others.

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In the third incident, three police personnel were killed during a search operation in Shangla district.

The police said that three militants were also killed in the operation. They said these militants had had been involved in “attacks targeting Chinese nationals”.

The string of attacks comes just days after a bombing at a mosque in Islamabad killed at least 31 people and injured 169. The Islamic State had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Over the past year, armed groups opposed to the Pakistani regime have ramped up their offensives, mounting frequent attacks in the restive northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has battered security forces and southwestern Balochistan where Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has frequently carried out attacks — recently launching Operation Herof in which forces took up to three days to retake control of the province.

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As a result, 2025 was the deadliest year for Pakistan in more than a decade, according to data with the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP).

Chinese nationals targeted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

In recent years, insurgents have often targeted Chinese projects and personnel in Pakistan.

In March, a suicide bombing killed five Chinese nationals working at a dam construction site along the mountainous Karakoram Highway.

As China has emerged as Pakistan’s principal backer, insurgents like the BLA have treated Chinese personnel and projects as legitimate targets, treating China as a collaborator of the Pakistani regime. Some of the worst attacks have occurred in Balochistan where China has invested billions in the Gwadar port and other infrastructure projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (Cpec).

In 2022, a suicide bombing killed three Chinese national and a Pakistani national at the Confucius Centre at the University of Karachi.

In 2021, a bombing killed nine Chinese personnel and two Pakistani soldiers when they were travelling for work to the Dasu hydropower project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.