Suicide Bombers Attack Pakistani Court, Taliban Group Responsible

Television footage showed wounded people being taken to hospital.

Policemen stand guard at a courthouse after an attack by suicide bombers in Charsadda, Pakistan on Tuesday, 21 February, 2017. (Photo Courtesy: Reuters)

Suicide bombers attacked a court complex in Pakistan on Tuesday, killing five people and wounding 20, police officials said.

Today's blast and attack is the latest in a new surge of Islamist violence in the nation. All three of the attackers were carrying hand grenades and AK-47 assault rifles, Ijaz Khan, police chief in the northwestern district of Charsadda, told Reuters.

One attacker blew himself up outside the court, while two were killed by policemen before they could enter the building.

The terrorists had come and wanted to kill as many people as they could inside the judicial complex. Five people were killed in the attack.

Ijaz Khan, Police Chief, Charsadda

Besides lawyers and judges, hundreds of litigants visit the building every day. A spokesman for Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement emailed to media. 

Last week, the militant faction released a video announcing a new campaign of attacks against the government, including the judiciary, police and the army. A series of bombings last week, in which more than 100 people were killed, has shattered a nascent sense that the worst of the country’s militant violence might be in the past.

The deadliest of last week's attacks was on a famous Sufi Muslim shrine in the southern province of Sindh and was claimed by the Middle-Eastern militant group Islamic State.

Islamic State has a small but increasingly prominent presence in Pakistan.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam