Nine students among 18 more killed in Pakistan bombing (Second Lead)

ISLAMABAD - At least 18 people, including nine school students, were killed and more than 40 injured Monday in yet another suicide attack in Pakistan, this time targeting a police station in Lakki Marwat, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

About 130 people have died in Pakistan in bombings and other terror attacks in several cities in the past week even as the country was trying to recover from unprecedented flooding that affected nearly a fifth of the country and took over 1,600 lives.

On Monday morning, a suicide bomber reportedly rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into the rear wall of the police station, killing nine policemen. There were over 45 police officials present inside the police station at the time of the blast.

The police station, situated in a busy shopping area of the town, has been severely damaged. Nine civilians killed in the blast included five boys and four girls who were going to a school nearby.

Lakki Marwat is a frontier town in what was earlier North West Frontier Province that has been renamed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The school and several other government buildings were also damaged.

Police said that several others were injured. “We’ll only be able to assess the damage completely once the debris are removed completely,” a police officer said, adding that about 20 police officials were injured.

Security forces have cordoned off the area and started rescue activities. The injured were shifted to a hospital whose northern wing was also damaged by the blast.

In the fresh wave of terrorist attacks in Pakistan, 73 people were killed in Quetta city and 35 died in Lahore last week when Shia community processions were targetted.

A suicide blast targeting a jirga (meeting of elders) in Shah Hassan Khel village near Lakki Marwat in January this year had killed over 100 people.

(Awais Saleem can be contacted at ians.pakistan@gmail.com)