DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — Pakistani police say militants that struck a police convoy with a bomb attack have killed three officers in the country’s northwest.

Police official Mohammad Khan says Friday’s attack was aimed at the newly appointed district police chief, Zahid Ullah, who escaped unhurt.

Mohammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack and warned of more in the future.

Dera Ismail Khan is a central town in the country’s northeast and a gateway to the North and South Waziristan tribal regions, which have were a base for local Taliban until recently when the army in series of operations killed or captured militants.

Violence, however, has persisted in the town. </s> DI KHAN: Two policemen have been killed and four injured in a roadside bomb blast in Dera Ismail Khan on Friday, police said.

The remote-controlled bombing took place on Kulachi Road near the convoy of DPO Zahidullah who escaped unhurt.

According to police, two members of the DPO’s security squad have been martyred in the attack.

Security forces have cordoned off the area and investigation is underway.

In December last year, three security officials were injured in a bomb blast in Tehsil Kolachi of Dera Ismail Khan. A Pakistan Army major was martyred in an exchange of fire with terrorists in the same area last year. </s> Dera Ismial Khan, Pakistan (Reuters) - A blast at a crowded market in a town in Pakistan’s northwest killed at least 8 people on Friday and wounded 20 others, a local government official said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast in the northwestern Orakzai district.

“Eight people have been killed and over 20 are injured. We are checking on further details,” local government official Mutahir Zeb told Reuters.

The blast occurred around the same time as three attackers attempted to storm the Chinese Consulate in the southern port city of Karachi in an unrelated incident in which two police officials were killed. The Karachi attack was claimed by the ethnic insurgent Baloch Liberation Army. </s> At least three policemen were martyred in Dera Ismail Khan on Friday as a roadside bomb exploded when a police convoy was passing through the area, DawnNewsTv reported.

The incident took place in Kolachi tehsil of DI Khan where the convoy of District Police Official (DPO) Zahidullah reportedly came under attack when a remotely-controlled IED exploded near the convoy on Hathala Road, police said.

As a result of the explosion, three policemen travelling in a squad vehicle accompanying the DPO lost their lives whereas four others sustained injuries. Fortunately, DPO Zahidullah survived the incident unscathed.

The injured policemen have been shifted to DHQ hospital Dera Ismail Khan.

A heavy contingent of law enforcement officials surrounded the area following the blast and started search operations, police said. </s> DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Taliban gunmen opened fire on a police vehicle and killed four officers in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, officials said, in a region once riven by militant violence but since cleared following military crackdowns.

The ambush, claimed by the Hizbul Ahrar, a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, was the first major attack in the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since a suicide blast killed a candidate in the lead-up to the July general election.

“The officers were out patrolling the area when six to seven people who were waiting for them opened fire on their vehicle,” senior police official Mohammad Iqbal told Reuters.

“The assailants were seated at a local tea stall and opened fire when the police vehicle approached.”

Iqbal said four police were killed and three people were wounded. Among the wounded is a senior police officer said to be in critical condition.

“Today Hizbul Ahrar target killers ... made a police vehicle their target,” the group’s spokesman, Aziz Yousafzai, said in a statement sent to Reuters via Whatsapp.

Dera Ismail Khan is on the edge of Pakistan’s former tribal areas that border Afghanistan, large swaths of which were once controlled by the Pakistani Taliban before military operations in 2009 and 2014 ended militant control of the region. </s> Karachi: At least two policemen were killed in a roadside blast in the troubled Balochistan province while 13 people were injured in two separate suicide bombings during Eid prayers on Tuesday targeting minority Shias in Pakistan's relatively peaceful southern Sindh province.

Two police officials were killed and 10 other injured in a blast near a police training centre on Quetta's Sariab road when militants targeted a police patrol vehicle in the area, police said.

Also, four suicide attackers infiltrated Shikarpur district's Khanpur tehsil, 470 kilometres north of Karachi, police said.

Two of the attackers targeted an Eid prayer ground where one assailant blew himself up, injuring 10 people, two of whom were policemen. The other attacker managed to flee, they said.

Two other suicide bombers targeted a Shia mosque but they were stopped at the entrance by policemen, which led to one of them blowing himself up while the other was arrested. Three policemen were injured in the attack, one of whom was critical. Last year, at least 61 people were killed in a suicide attack on a mosque in the district.

"Alert" policemen at the venues prevented huge casualties, police officer Beherdin Kehrio told reporters. "If the policemen had not prevented these suicide bombers from entering the prayer venues there would have been largescale casualties because of the large gathering because of Eid prayers," he said.

He said the attackers at the Shia mosque were stopped by policemen as they looked suspicious and when confronted one of them detonated himself. "The other attacker was brought down and arrested," he added.

Those injured in the blast have been admitted to hospitals in Shikarpur for treatment. No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan has been frequently hit by sectarian violence in recent years, most of them perpetrated by hardline Sunni Muslim groups against minority Shia Muslims. However, Sindh is considered a relatively peaceful of Pakistan's four provinces and is highly influenced by Sufi doctrines and principles. </s> DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Three policemen were killed as a result of an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Dera Ismail Khan on Friday evening, police said.



The incident took place on Hathala Road in DI Khan, police officials said, when the squad of District Police Officer (DPO) Dr Zahidullah passed by.

DPO Zahidullah escaped the attempt unhurt, however, five personnel in his squad were injured.

A vehicle in the DPO's squad was also partially damaged.



The wounded personnel were shifted to a hospital, where three of them succumbed to their injuries, police said.

Two other injured policemen remain under treatment at the hospital.

Bilawal, Zardari condemn attack

Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari condemned the attack on DPO's squad and extended his heartfelt sympathies to the relatives of martyred policemen. He also prayed for speedy recovery of injured personnel.

Denouncing the IED attack, former president Asif Ali Zardari also extended his condolences to families of martyred personnel. The former president called for immediate arrest of perpetrators. </s> At least two people including a police constable were killed and a youth killed in separate incidents of violence here on Wednesday.

 Police said that unidentified armed men gunned down a police constable identified as Tariq while he was on his way to home after duty in Zafarabad Colony of Dera Ismail Khan.

 Another youth was shot dead by armed men over personal grudge in Shorkot area of D.I.Khan. The bodies of both were shifted to hospitals of respective areas and the police after registering separate cases at concerned police stations have started the investigation.—INP </s> A powerful blast targeting a police vehicle in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province has killed five people, including two security personnel, and injured 38 others, a top police official said on Wednesday.

The blast took place close to a police vehicle at the Bacha Khan Chowk in the remit of the City Police Station on Tuesday, Quetta’s Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) of police Abdul Razzaq Cheema said.

The target of the blast appeared to be the Station House Officer (SHO) of the area who received some injuries and has been shifted to a hospital, the DIG told reporters. “The bomb went off as soon as SHO Shaffat got down from his vehicle,” he said, adding that the condition of the SHO is said to be critical.

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Cheema said it was too early to confirm whether it was a suicide attack or the blast caused by a remotely triggered device.

Police said the bomb was planted in a motorcycle parked close to the patrolling vehicle. Five people, including two cops, were killed and 38 others injured in the attack. Three people died on the spot, police said.

The injured included women and children who were passing through the area when the bomb went off in the heart of the city. The condition of at least six of them was stated to be serious.

Earlier, police officials said terrorists had planted explosives in a motorcycle and parked it near the police vehicle before it was detonated. A contingent of the law enforcement agencies threw a security cordon around the area as rescuers continued evacuations.

The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the blast, according to a report in a leading Pakistani daily.

The injured and bodies of the dead were shifted to the Civil Hospital, where officials confirmed the death toll.

The impact of the blast was so strong that it shattered the glass windows of nearby shopping malls and damaged parked vehicles and motorcycles.

Home Minister Mir Zia Langove said the government would not be cowed down by such attacks and the mission to purge the province of the menace of terrorism would continue.

Balochistan Governor retired Justice Amanullah Khan Yasinzai, Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan and his cabinet members strongly condemned the bomb blast and expressed their grief and sorrow over the loss of lives of innocent people.

It was the second bomb explosion within the last seven days in the provincial capital. On July 23, a blast had occurred in the Eastern Bypass area which left four people dead and 32 injured.

Balochistan has been wrecked by ethnic, sectarian and separatist violence for more than a decade.
A bomb targeting police in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, kills three people and injures five others.