May 19, 2026 16:30 pm IST

Opinion | 3 Blasts In A Week: Pakistan's Taliban Blowback Is Entering A Dangerous New Phase

First came an IED attack, then a suicide blast, with militants taking weapons and police personnel from the site, then a bomb blast.

Aishwaria Sonavane Aishwaria Sonavane Columnist

Aishwaria Sonavane Columnist

Pakistan has been eager to present itself to the international community as a stabilising and responsible power - a nuclear state with diplomatic reach in capitals of Gulf countries, China, the US, and its neighbour Iran. The remarkable diplomatic ambition, however, is undermined by its own internal realities. Keeping its economic challenges aside for a moment, Pakistan continues to face acute security challenges on its northwest frontier, where Baloch insurgent groups and Islamist outfits have steadily overstretched its security establishment. 

Last week, multiple terror attacks rocked the restive provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). A vehicle-borne IED, carrying an estimated 1,200-1,500 kilograms of explosives, was detonated at a police post in Fateh Khel, on the outskirts of Bannu district in southern KP. An ambush attack followed the suicide blast, with militants taking weapons and police personnel from the site. At least 21 police officers were killed, and Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan, a group with a structural and operational DNA of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack. 

Days after, a bomb concealed in a rickshaw detonated in the main market in Lakki Marwat district, a region along Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu corridor. The blast in a civilian area on May 12 killed at least nine people and wounded 30 others. The violence in Lakki Marwat is not new, with the region becoming a staging ground for TTP activities after the group expanded its operational scope from the........

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