Earlier 8 policemen were killed in a suicide attack on Baluchistan Constabulary van in Bolan

Islamabad: Two persons were killed and 21 others, including three Pakistan army soldiers, were injured in a suicide attack on a convoy of security forces in the Baka Khel area of Bannu district in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan-based Dawn reported citing the military's media affairs wing.

In a statement, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that a "motorcycle-borne suicide bomber" detonated himself at a security forces convoy on Sunday. According to ISPR, the bomber was affiliated with the Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group and "later identified as an Afghan national".

According to ISPR, two civilians were killed while 18 civilians and three soldiers were wounded in the attack. The ISPR said that a sanitisation operation is being conducted to eliminate any other terrorists found in the area, according to Dawn report.

On Wednesday, two soldiers were killed after an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded on a security forces convoy in the Razmak area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's North Waziristan district.

Notably, Pakistan has witnessed a rise in terrorist attacks in recent months, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan after the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan ended its ceasefire with the Pakistan government in 2022.

In a report released in October, the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) said that 386 security personnel lost their lives in the first nine months of 2023, reaching an eight-year high, Geo News reported. In the third quarter of 2023, some 445 people were killed and 440 others were injured from 190 terror attacks and counter-terror operations, Geo News reported.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan remained the prime centres for violence, reporting nearly 94 per cent of all fatalities and 89 per cent of attacks, including incidents of terrorism and security forces operations recorded during this time.