Bannu police say two back-to-back remote-controlled explosions struck a passenger vehicle and then a rescue car in the Phing Musakhel area; no group has claimed the attack, which authorities are treating as terrorism.
At least seven people were killed and three wounded in two back-to-back remote-controlled blasts in the Phing Musakhel (Marka Bera) area of Bannu’s Wazir sub-division in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on June 20, according to district police, in one of the deadliest single days of militant violence in the district this month. Dawn reported the toll, as did The Express Tribune.
Bannu District Police Officer Yasir Afridi confirmed the casualties and described the incident as a “cowardly act of terrorism,” saying the first device targeted a private passenger vehicle and a second device detonated roughly a kilometre away as the wounded were being driven to hospital, according to Dawn and the Arab News wire account, which cited Bannu Regional Police Officer Aamir Khan.
Police characterised the explosions as remote-controlled improvised explosive devices. Al Jazeera, citing district police officer Yasir Afridi, reported that the first blast hit a pickup and the second struck as rescuers responded, while the Arab News account, attributed to RPO Aamir Khan, gave the same sequence.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack. Al Jazeera noted there had been “no claim of responsibility for the blast,” though it observed that Bannu and the wider tribal belt have seen a surge in violence linked to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
According to Dawn, those killed and injured belonged to the Hathi Khel tribe, whose members have formed a local peace committee opposing TTP militants in the area — a detail not independently confirmed by the other outlets reviewed and therefore attributed here to Dawn alone.
Officials said a forensic team had collected evidence and that a search operation and investigation were under way, with no arrests announced at the time of reporting. A separate June 20 wire dispatch by Xinhua reported the same seven-dead toll in the twin Bannu explosions. Bannu, which borders Afghanistan, has repeatedly been targeted in recent months.
