In the volatile northwest, the Pakistani Taliban on Monday denied any role in a bombing attack on a police convoy that was carrying foreign ambassadors, while authorities claimed they were still investigating the perpetrators.
At the time of the incident in Malam Jabba, one of Pakistan’s two ski resorts in the Afghan bordering province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, most ambassadors and senior envoys were on their way to the Swat Valley, a previous bastion of the Pakistani Taliban, with their family.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but Mohammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, denied detonating the improvised explosive device that hit a police vehicle accompanying the convoy.
A police officer was killed, and four others were wounded in the attack, which drew strong condemnation from Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other officials.
The envoys were all unharmed, but the attack suggested there was a security breach.
“For sure it was a security breach because the convoy’s route was only known to police, and the bomb disposal unit had reportedly cleared the route,” said Abdullah Khan, a defense analyst and managing director of the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.
“Some insiders (appears to have) leaked the information about the travel plans of the foreign ambassadors to the militants,” he added.
Khan said the attack signaled a shift in the approach of insurgents, who previously targeted security forces.
Pakistani defense analyst Syed Muhammad Ali said there was a need for better coordination between federal authorities and police about such high-profile visits to the northwest, which has witnessed a surge in violence.
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