NORTH WAZIRISTAN: At least eight people, including four policemen and two security officials, embraced martyrdom and several others were injured in a suicide bomb blast at a joint police and security forces checkpoint in the Eidak area of North Waziristan district on Saturday, officials said.

The attack took place when personnel were inspecting vehicles, they said, adding that the suicide bomber, travelling in a rickshaw, blew himself up at the Aslam checkpoint.

“Four policemen, two security personnel and two civilians have been martyred,” an official said.

The injured were initially shifted to a Miramshah hospital before being airlifted to the Combined Military Hospital in Bannu district.

Police sources said several vehicles were damaged in the blast. The area was immediately cordoned off and the road was closed.

No statement was immediately issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations, the military’s media wing.

The attack follows a series of terrorist assaults over the past two days, which claimed the lives of 15 law enforcement personnel in various parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The deadliest of these occurred in the Darazinda area of Dera Ismail Khan district, where 10 Frontier Constabulary soldiers were martyred in an attack on a checkpoint.

A banned militant group claimed responsibility for that attack, describing it as “revenge” for a military operation in Bajaur earlier in the week, which saw nine militants, including a key leader, Said Mohammad alias Qureshi Ustad, killed on Wednesday.