At least one person was killed and five others injured in a remote-controlled bomb explosion near a mosque in South Waziristan’s Azam Warsak bazaar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, police reported on Sunday.
The blast resulted in the death of Mufti Ejazul Haq, while the injured have been identified as Saddam, Shah Hussain, Noor Hussain, Zain Ullah, and Maulana Shahzada Wazir. Maulana Shahzada sustained serious injuries, and the condition of some of the other wounded individuals remains critical, according to Dr. Fazlur Rehman, Deputy Medical Superintendent at the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital in Wana, where the injured were rushed for treatment.
Two of the critically injured were later transferred to Dera Ismail Khan for further medical care.
Station House Officer (SHO) Usman Wazir of the Azam Warsak Police Station confirmed that unidentified assailants had planted the remote-controlled bomb near the mosque. Police have launched an investigation into the attack.
The bombing is part of a broader resurgence of militant activity in Pakistan, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan, regions that have seen a spike in terrorist incidents following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.
According to a report from the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), terrorist violence in Pakistan surged dramatically in the third quarter of 2024, with a 90% increase in fatalities from terror attacks and counterterrorism operations. Between July and September, 722 people were killed and 615 wounded across 328 incidents, with nearly 97% of these fatalities occurring in KP and Balochistan.
