A suicide bomber has attacked a court in the northern Pakistani city of Mardan, killing at least 11 people and injuring almost 30, officials say.
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He said one policeman shot him dead and that the attacker’s suicide belt exploded at that time.
Prime minister Nawaz Sharif issued statements condemning both attacks, saying: “These cowardly attacks can not shatter our unflinching resolve in our war against terrorism”. “These receding elements are showing frustration by attacking our soft targets”.
“They shall not get space to hide in Pakistan.”.
The spokesperson for Jamaat-ur-Ahrar faction of Taliban, Ehsanullah Ehsan said, “We have carried out the attack”.
“We appeal to civilians to remain away from law enforcement installations and these un-Islamic courts”.
Prior to that in a separate incident of terror attack in a Christian colony in northwestern Pakistan early on Friday, one civilian and four terrorists were killed.
The group claiming responsibility is Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a Taliban splinter group.
All told, officials reported 14 people were killed and at least 58 others wounded, three of them in critical condition.
Security forces have cordoned off the area and launched further investigation.
The courthouse attack on Monday followed an attack on a Christian neighborhood in the same region of Pakistan hours before. Taliban gunmen had killed more than 150 people, a lot of them children, in the deadliest attack.
Army spokesman Lieutenant General Asim Saleem Bajwa said in a statement that the attack was quickly repulsed and that security forces were searching for any accomplices.
The military arrested 309 suspects, including IS members from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
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The colony is situated near the borders of the Khyber and Mohmand agencies.
