With Pakistanis still reeling from the suicide car bombing of a police station in Lakki Marwat yesterday, another car bomber struck another police station in the same province, just north in the Kohat District.
Today’s strike killed at least 21 people, including a number of civilians, and was said to have hit around sunset, when the locals were breaking their Ramadan fast. Yesterday’s strike killed 19, mostly police but also including at least four schoolchildren who were passing by.
A Pakistani Taliban faction operating in the area is said to have claimed credit for yesterday’s bombing, though it remains to be seen if the same group is responsible for today’s. Pakistan’s northwest has no shortage of militant factions with an axe to grind against police.
Massive numbers of people have been killed in high profile bombings recently, including an attack against an anti-Israel protest last week that killed 73 Shi’ite protesters. Pakistani officials have attributed this latest escalation of bombings to the flooding crisis, claiming that it has weakened security across the nation.