Twin blasts kill police officer in northwestern Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – A twin bombing killed a Pakistani police officer and wounded nine people in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Wednesday, police said.

A roadside explosion first hit on the outskirts of the city, and the second bomb went off about half an hour later, after police and local TV crews arrived at the scene, police official Sher Khan said.

Some members of the media crews were among the wounded, Khan said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The area has long been a centre of Islamic militancy in Pakistan and Peshawar itself has seen several large-scale militant attacks.

One of the most horrific Taliban attacks struck an army-run school in Peshawar in late 2014, killing over 150, mostly schoolchildren. Pakistan has since taken strict measures to curb militancy and stepped up army operations in the lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border.

Another measure included the lifting of a ban on the death penalty and setting up military courts for terrorism trials.

Police have also stepped up crackdowns on militants hiding in urban areas. In one such raid on Wednesday, a Pakistani counter terrorism team intercepted seven militants in the eastern Pakistani city of Gujranwala, police official Khalid Mahmood said.

The militants were on their way to the nearby city of Lahore where they planned to carry out attacks, he added. A shootout that ensued left four of the militants dead while the rest escaped. Explosives and assault rifles were seized from their car, Mahmood said.