A powerful roadside bomb struck a police vehicle Friday in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in the country’s northwest near the Afghan border, killing a city police chief and two junior officers, officials said. The bombing took place in the city of Hangu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province as the officers were heading to a police station that had been attacked less than an hour earlier, local police chief Adam Khan said. He gave no further details. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attacks and blamed them on the Pakistani Taliban, which is a separate group but a close ally of Afghanistan’s Taliban, which returned to power in Kabul in August 2021 after the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces. Pakistan accuses Kabul of allowing Pakistani Taliban militants based in Afghanistan to carry out cross-border attacks. Kabul denies the charge, saying it does not allow its territory to be used against other countries.

Full report : Roadside bombing kills 3 police officers in northwest Pakistan.