At least eight people were killed in a suicide blast in northwestern Pakistan

Pakistani authorities said Saturday that a suicide bomber targeted a security checkpoint in the volatile region near the border with Afghanistan, killing at least eight people and wounding several others.

The attack occurred in the town of Mir Ali in Pakistan’s North Waziristan district. The dead include at least two soldiers, four policemen and two civilians.

Multiple local security officials confirmed the death toll, saying the attacker detonated a motorcycle rickshaw packed with explosives at a checkpoint.

Five security personnel were also injured in the explosion, with local hospital sources describing the condition of some of them as “critical.”

Militants allied with the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have reportedly claimed responsibility for the deadly attack. This came a day after fierce clashes with militants in districts surrounding North Waziristan in which at least 16 members of Pakistan’s security forces were killed and many others injured.

Pakistani officials have reported a dramatic increase in TTP-led gun attacks and suicide bombings in the country, particularly in the border province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where North Waziristan is located.

According to independent research reports, more than 1,000 Pakistanis died in violence in the first 10 months of this year, half of them security forces.

Islamabad says the TTP operates from sanctuaries in Afghanistan and has stepped up cross-border attacks since the Islamist Taliban regained power in the neighboring country.

The Taliban government in Kabul stubbornly denies allegations that the TTP or any other transnational militant groups have a presence on Afghan soil.

The TTP, commonly known as the Pakistan Taliban, is listed as a global terrorist organization by the United Nations and the United States.

The group sheltered Afghan Taliban leaders in Pakistan’s border areas and joined them for years in organizing insurgent attacks against U.S.-led international forces in Afghanistan until they left in August 2021.