Suicide bomber targets security patrol in Pakistan, six killed

Six killed after blast hits security vehicle in North Waziristan while in a separate incident gunman shot dead two minority Sikhs in Peshawar.

Three soldiers and three children were killed in northwest Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan when an attacker detonated an explosive near a security forces vehicle, the military said in a statement.

In a separate attack, gunmen shot dead two minority Sikhs in Pakistan’s city of Peshawar, a police officer said.

A Pakistan military statement on Sunday said a bomber triggered an explosives-laden vest near a vehicle on security patrol in a village near the town of Mir Ali in the tribal district of North Waziristan.

The blast instantly killed two soldiers in the vehicle and wounded another. Three children playing alongside the road were also critically wounded. All of the wounded were rushed to a hospital in a helicopter but none survived, the statement said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Also on Sunday, police officer Ejaz Khan told Associated Press that gunmen riding on a motorcycle opened fire on two members of the minority Sikh community in a bazaar in the Peshawar suburb of Sarband.

The officer said the victims, Ranjit Singh, 38, and Kanwal Jeet Singh, 42, were shot multiple times as they were setting up their spices shop in the Batta Tal bazaar.

The attackers fled the scene and there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Police are investigating but Khan said it appeared the two Sikhs were targeted because of their ethnicity.

Sikhs are a tiny minority in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and have been targeted by rebels in the past. The region has also served as a safe haven for armed groups.

Pakistan’s military carried out a massive operation after rebels attacked an army-run school in Peshawar in 2014 that left more than150 dead, mostly schoolchildren.