On Camera, Suicide Bomber Blows Himself Up Near Pak Checkpost, 4 Cops Dead

A suicide attack took place near a checkpost in Pakistan's Bhakkar district at 7pm on Tuesday. Two police personnel were killed in the explosion, while four others were injured. All injured personnel were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital for treatment.

The suicide bomber detonated explosives close to the checkpost near the bridge linking Dera Ismail Khan with Punjab, which resulted in commuters and traders facing inconvenience, per local media reports.

"The suicide attacker came near the check post and blew himself up while we were conducting a search operation in the area to maintain law and order," Bhakkar District Police Officer (DPO) Shahzad Rafiq told Dawn.

CCTV footage shows the attacker in a black shawl walking briskly towards the checkpost before carrying out the blast. Several security personnel were roaming the area when the blast happened. After the blast, security was on high alert in Dera Ismail Khan and the Bhakkar district, and the main highway connecting Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces remained shut on Wednesday.

Police shut the road near the Dera Darya Khan bridge and suspended all traffic as a precautionary measure while a search operation was launched in the nearby areas, Dawn reported.

A lesser-known extremist group Ittehadul Mujahideen Pakistan-affiliated Ansar al Islam Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack and stated that their suicide bomber Abu Darda carried it out.

In recent years, terrorist attacks have surged in Pakistan, much of it blamed on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and outlawed Baloch separatist groups. The TTP is separate from but closely allied with Afghanistan's Taliban. Islamabad accuses the TTP of operating from inside Afghanistan, a charge both the group and Kabul deny.