A police officer was killed and six people were injured in a suicide car bombing at a checkpoint in Pakistan’s capital city Islamabad on Friday. According to the police, the occupants of the car were suspected militants and the explosion took place when the vehicle was asked to stop for routine checking.
“Our initial information says that there was a man and a woman in the car,” Islamabad operations police chief, Sohail Zafar told reporters on Friday, adding as the police officers chased the car, it blew up, a report by news agency Reuters said.
Zafar said it was a suicide blast and the injured were four police officers and six civilians.
The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the bombing.
The incident has raised fears of the presence of militants in Islamabad, which is considered to be one of the safest cities in Pakistan.
The country has seen a series of militant attacks in recent times.
On December 18, suspected militants attacked a police station in the Lakki Marwat district, killing four police personnel. Three days later, dozens of armed militants stormed a police station in Wana city of South Waziristan, injuring a police constable.
In Bannu, militants mostly belonging to the Pakistani Taliban seized a counter-terrorism centre on December 18 and took hostages to negotiate with government authorities.
The government began hostage talks a day later. On Tuesday (December 20), security forces retook the counter-terrorism centre and rescued all hostages. Twenty-five of the 35 militants were killed in the raid while one hostage and two commandos died.
(With inputs from agencies)
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