A suicide car bomber attacked a military convoy near North Waziristan on Wednesday, killing eight people, including six soldiers, and injuring 12 others, a military spokesman and witnesses said. ISPR Director General Maj Gen Waheed Arshad told Daily Times on the phone from Islamabad that the convoy was heading towards Bannu from Miranshah when a suicide bomber attacked it in front of a madrassa in the Gurbaz area. “Six jawans were martyred in what appears to be a suicide attack,” Arshad said, adding that linking the attack to the events in Islamabad could only be “speculation”. “One can speculate but there is no evidence … the army has been attacked in this area before,” he said.
A passenger van driver in Bannu told Daily Times that a white car smashed into the last truck traveling in the convoy from behind and exploded. “The bomber signaled me to slow down as he drove past my vehicle. I thought he was a highway man and slowed my van, but moments later I saw the man crash his vehicle in the truck,” he said, adding that military helicopters airlifted the killed and wounded soldiers. A civilian killed in the attack has been identified as a student of Darul Uloom Sadiqia where the attack took place. “One madrassa student was killed and another five were injured in the attack,” Noor Islam, a madrassa student, told Daily Times.