Suicide bomb blast kills 12 in Dera Ismail Khan

ISLAMABAD: A suicide bomber attacked a police van in Dera Ismail Khan on Tuesday, killing 12 people, including a DSP and three other policemen, a doctor said.

There has been a relative lull in militant violence in recent weeks since government forces stepped up offensives in the Orakzai and Khyber regions of the northwest after largely clearing Pakistani Taliban strongholds in other areas.
A police spokesman said the bomb was planted on a bicycle.
The bomber attacked the police van carrying the DSP and other police officers on the outskirts of Dera Ismail Khan on the main road leading to Bannu, said police.
DawnNews reported that DSP Iqbal Khan’s vehicle had been badly affected.
The injured are being taken to the DHQ hospital. A doctor said 12 dead and 10 wounded people had been brought in.
“We have 12 dead bodies in our emergency room,” the doctor, Qibla Khan, told Reuters by telephone.

Source: Agencies