LAKKI MARWAT — A bomb rigged to a rickshaw exploded in a bazaar in Lakki Marwat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan, on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and wounding more than two dozen others. Two traffic police officers and a woman were among those killed, and the blast damaged nearby shops.

A district police chief said traffic police officers were apparently the target of the attack and that most of the dead and wounded were passersby. No group immediately claimed responsibility. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan denied involvement in Tuesday's attack, saying in a statement that it had learned about the bombing but was not behind it.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and conveyed his condolences to the families of the victims. In a statement, Sharif said "the government and all relevant institutions were committed to eliminating terrorism and would not allow militants to obstruct peace and development in the country." He directed authorities to swiftly complete the investigation, identify those responsible and ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice.

Days earlier, 15 police officers were killed in a suicide bombing and gun assault on a security post in the nearby Bannu district. Pakistan blamed the late Saturday attack in Bannu on the Pakistani Taliban, and Islamabad summoned a senior Afghan diplomat to lodge a formal complaint following the assault.

Pakistani authorities have long accused Afghanistan's Taliban government of sheltering militants. Kabul has denied the allegation, saying it does not allow militants to use Afghan soil to launch attacks against other countries. Pakistan has seen an increase in militant violence in recent years, straining relations with Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups have grown more emboldened since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021.

Tensions between the two countries have persisted, including fighting that has killed hundreds of people since late February. In early April, Pakistan and Afghanistan held peace talks mediated by China. Sporadic cross-border clashes have continued at a lower intensity than before.