A suicide car bomb attack hit a police station in Domel tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district late Thursday night, killing at least five people and wounding several others, police said.
The Attack in Domel
The explosion occurred when a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the gates of the police station. The blast was so powerful that the station and several houses were destroyed and the district was rocked.
According to initial reports, although the police station was the most heavily hit, the collateral damage was severe. Five bodies were found in the rubble and four police officers were wounded and brought to a medical center. Witnesses said there was heavy gunfire immediately after the blast and panic was reignited in the area.
Emergency response efforts are ongoing as the structural integrity of the damaged buildings is assessed and any survivors under the rubble are searched for.
Pakistan is still a safe haven for terrorists, the US report says. It comes as the United States’ Congressional Research Service (CRS) has issued a scathing report on March 25, 2026, on Pakistan, which has concluded that Pakistan continues to serve as a safe haven for terrorist organizations.
Despite Islamabad’s “National Action Plan” which calls for a ban on all armed militias, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) continue to operate openly on Pakistani soil.
Key findings from the CRS report are:
- Inconsistent action: The Pakistani military and government have acted “inconsistently” against terror groups, often failing to stop individuals from operating in the public eye, he said.
- Targeting Neighbors: The report mentions that these groups continue to target India, especially the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
- LeT’s resilience: LeT was established in the late 1980s and is still a serious threat; the media of Jamaat-ud-Dawa is spreading its message across Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan.
A Growing Security Challenge
The blast in Bannu is a stark reminder of the state of security in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where attacks on law enforcement have become more frequent. Once rescue efforts are done, the focus will return to the international pressure on Islamabad to dismantle the infrastructure of extremist groups that U.S. figures have cited.
