Pakistan: Explosions kill 17 in Swat Valley counter-terror office
At least 17 human beings were killed in explosions at a counter-terrorism workplace in north-west Pakistan, officers say.
Police stated that there may be no proof of an assault and that it may were due to an electrical fault igniting ammunition withinside the centre. Most of the lifeless are police officers. The explosion befell withinside the Swat valley, which become managed via way of means of Islamist militants earlier than they had been compelled out in 2009.
More than 50 human beings had been injured and homes have collapsed. Four of the lifeless are civilians. A spokesman for provincial police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which neighbours Afghanistan, stated that ammunition stuck fire, “maximum probable because of an electric powered short-circuit”.
“No proof of an assault from out of doors has been mounted so far.” The Pakistani Taliban organization has done numerous assaults concentrated on safety forces in latest months, however has now no longer claimed involvement in those explosions.
The nearby leader of the counter-terrorism branch Sohail Khalid instructed Reuters that the explosions did now no longer seem like an act of terrorism. “There become a shop in which we had a big amount of weapons, and till now we agree with that there may have a few blast in it because of a few carelessness” he stated. “We are maintaining all our alternatives open.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif first of all referred to as the blasts a “suicide assault”, however later tweeted that that “the character of the blast is being investigated”. Pakistani counter-terrorist forces keep a robust presence withinside the valley, which has been susceptible to insurgency.
In 2012, Taliban militants additionally shot and wounded Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai withinside the valley.
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