At least nine people were killed and around 30 others wounded after an explosion ripped through a crowded market in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, according to emergency officials and local police.
The blast struck Naurang Bazar in the town of Sarai Naurang in Lakki Marwat district, near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.
Police said the explosion was caused by a bomb-laden rickshaw.
Two traffic police officers and a woman were among those killed, local police chief Azmat Ullah said.
Emergency responders said panic spread through the market as residents rushed to help the wounded while rescue vehicles moved victims to hospitals.
Visuals from the scene showed damaged shopfronts and a mangled vehicle.
The attack came days after a bombing and gun assault on a police post in nearby Bannu district killed security personnel.
Pakistan blamed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, for the earlier assault and said militants involved were based in Afghanistan.
The Afghan Taliban administration rejected the accusation on Tuesday.
“Pakistani officials’ latest remarks, which claim that an attack on a police centre in Bannu was planned in Afghanistan, are considered baseless and rejected,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a post on X.
Pakistani authorities have repeatedly accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of sheltering TTP fighters, an allegation Kabul has denied.
Rescue 1122 said those seriously wounded in Tuesday’s explosion were transferred to hospitals in Bannu for treatment.
Mohammad Ishaq, the medical superintendent of THQ Hospital, said the facility had received 37 patients and that several were in critical condition.
The latest blast has added to concerns over rising violence in Pakistan’s northwest, where attacks by armed groups have intensified in recent years.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have also faced heightened tensions in recent months following cross-border clashes and airstrikes earlier this year.