
A blast at a peace committee office in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s South Waziristan tribal district on Monday killed at least seven people, police and health officials said.
Pakistan has witnessed an uptick in terror activities over the past year, especially in KP and Balochistan, after the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan ended its ceasefire with the government in November 2022.
Wana City police Station House Officer (SHO) Usman Nazir told Dawn.com that seven people were killed and 16 others were also injured in the blast, which took place around 11am on Monday.
“Five of the injured are in critical condition,” he said. “The peace committee office was the target, as there was a meeting going on there at the time of the explosion.”
The SHO added that peace committee member Saifur Rehman was injured in the attack, “but his condition is not critical”.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
KP Health Adviser Ehtesham Ali condemned the blast in a statement and said that seven bodies had been transferred to the hospital.
“Around 15 injured have been brought to the hospital,” Ethesham said. “The injured are receiving treatment and an emergency has been declared in the hospital. Staff leaves have been suspended.”
Meanwhile, the District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) in Wana confirmed that seven bodies were brought to the hospital after the blast, but the list issued by the hospital stated that a total of nine people were injured.
Thick black smoke was visible in the photos from the scene posted on social media.
Peace committees have existed in the area since 2007, such as that led by Mullah Nazir which was assigned the task of evicting Uzbek, Tajiks and other foreign fighters from the area.
Mullah Nazir was killed along with his 10 associates in a US drone strike in the Birmil area of South Waziristan Agency in January 2013.
Militant violence and security operations intensified in the country in March, with the number of militant attacks surpassing 100 for the first time since November 2014, according to a report by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.
Pakistan ranked second in the Global Terrorism Index 2025, with the number of deaths in terrorist attacks rising by 45 per cent over the past year to 1,081.