Bomb Rigged To Rickshaw Explodes In Pakistan Bazaar, 9 killed

A bomb rigged to a rickshaw exploded in a bazaar in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and wounding more than two dozen others, police said, in the latest sign of escalating violence in the region bordering Afghanistan. 

The attack took place in Lakki Marwat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, local police chief Azmat Ullah said. He said that two traffic police officers and a woman were among those killed.

Ullah provided no further details but said traffic police officers were apparently the target of the



attack. 

The bombing also damaged nearby shops. Most of the dead and wounded were passersby, he said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. Suspicion in such attacks often falls on the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, which has intensified its campaign against Pakistani security forces in recent years. The group is separate from but allied with Afghanistan?s Taliban government.

However, the Pakistani Taliban denied involvement in Tuesday's attack, saying in a statement that it had learned about the bombing but was not behind it.