• Two explosive-laden cars rammped into compound’s perimeter.
• Security personnel neutralise six, apprehend others.
• Explosion caused damage to nearby mosque, houses.

Security forces foiled a major terrorist attack on Bannu Cantonment in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and killed at least six attackers, sources said on Tuesday.  

Security sources added that suicide bombers affiliated with the militant Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) drove two explosive-laden cars into the compound’s perimeter after facing stiff resistance from the defenders, triggering massive explosions.

Meanwhile, security personnel at various entry points neutralised six terrorists and apprehended others.

Sources further stated that the explosions caused damage to a nearby mosque and led to the collapse of a house’s roof. 

In a statement, a spokesperson for the District Headquarter Hospital (DHQ) said that at least 15 civilians, including four children and two women, were killed in the blast, while 25 others sustained injuries.  

The attack comes days after a suicide bomber killed six people at a religious school in Pakistan, attended by key Taliban leaders in the same province.

Similar attacks have increased in Pakistan since the Taliban authorities returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Hafiz Gul Bahadur group carried out a similar attack on the same compound last July, detonating an explosive-laden vehicle against the boundary wall, killing eight Pakistan Army soldiers while a retaliatory operation killed 10 terrorists.

Last year was the deadliest in a decade for Pakistan, with a surge in attacks that killed more than 1,600 people, according to Islamabad-based analysis group the Center for Research and Security Studies.

Islamabad accuses Kabul’s rulers of failing to root out militants sheltering on Afghan soil as they prepare to stage assaults on Pakistan, a charge the Taliban government denies.