Suicide Bomber Kills 14 Outside Pakistan Police Station
A suicide bomber killed at least fourteen people outside a police station in the Swat valley in north-western Pakistan, officials said. The attack struck near a rally that had been protesting against a rise in militant violence in the region. No group immediately claimed responsibility.
The bombing was among the deadliest in a resurgence of militancy in Pakistan’s north-west, where security forces and civilians alike have been targeted with growing frequency. Swat, once overrun by the Pakistani Taliban and later reclaimed by the army, has seen fears mount of a return to the violence of a decade ago. That the blast hit a gathering protesting insecurity underlined the very danger the demonstrators had come to decry. The government faces rising pressure to restore order in the border regions. Watch for a claim of responsibility and the official response.