“So far we recovered 12 bodies of lawyers, police personnel and civilians”.
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The chief rescue officer in Mardan, Haris Habib said that there was a small blast first followed by a big blast.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has condemned both attacks, adding that militants were on the back foot and were “showing their frustration by attacking soft targets”. A court building in the northwest of the country was attacked hours after the same group attacked a Christian neighbourhood in the same region. Last month, the same group had claimed responsibility for killing over 70 people, majority lawyers in a suicide attack at a hospital in southwestern Quetta city. Security forces quickly cordoned off the colony as reinforcements of Pakistan Army’s Quick Reaction Force (QRF) joined in from Peshawar.
Officials said that 10 people were killed, of which at least one was a police officer, local media reported.
Earlier, four suicide bombers who tried to attack a Christian colony were killed in a gunfight with security forces.
Two Frontier Corps soldiers, a police constable and two civilian guards were injured in the exchange of fire with the terrorists, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. Sec forces Promptly responded, all 4 suicide bombers killed.
In Mardan a suicide bomber launched a grenade at the district court before detonating his explosives, according to government spokesman Mushtaq Ghani.
Security in Pakistan has improved in recent years but extremist groups continue to stage major attacks.
In August the Taliban and the Islamic State issued competing claims on an attack against lawyers at a hospital in Quetta, killing 74 people.
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Security agency sources told DawnNews that the training facilities were the initial targets but they had been alerted to the threats.
