Police in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province say at least nine people were killed and 23 others injured in an explosion early Tuesday in Lakki Marwat district.
Qudratullah Khan, spokesperson for the Lakki Marwat police command, said two police officers were among those killed.
According to reports, a teenage girl and a woman were also among the injured.
Images and videos circulating on social media show several shops and nearby buildings damaged by the blast.
Pakistani police said it remains unclear whether the incident was a suicide attack or caused by explosives planted in a motorcycle or vehicle.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.
The explosion comes only days after a suicide bombing on Saturday killed at least 15 police officers at the Fateh Khel checkpoint in the Bannu region.
Following that attack, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry summoned Sardar Ahmad Shakib, the Taliban chargé d’affaires in Islamabad.
Pakistan had claimed that the attack was planned from Afghan territory.
Security analysts say the growing number of deadly attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is increasing concerns about worsening instability and rising tensions between Islamabad and the Taliban administration.
Experts warn that continued attacks of this scale could intensify political and military pressure on Pakistan’s government to adopt harsher security measures in border regions.
They also note that repeated assaults on police and security installations suggest an evolving insurgent capability aimed at undermining state authority and stretching security resources across northwestern Pakistan.
