A vehicle carrying explosives hit a checkpoint in Pakistan’s Dera Ismail Khan district on Saturday. Local police and rescuers reported deaths and injuries, but the published casualty counts and descriptions of those killed differ. The attack struck a post used by police and customs staff in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province bordering Afghanistan.
A vehicle laden with explosives struck the Aman Mela checkpoint in Darazinda, in Pakistan’s northwestern Dera Ismail Khan district, on Saturday. Police accounts carried by Al Jazeera and Geo News place the blast at a roadside post used by security personnel. Geo News describes it as an anti-smuggling checkpoint on the road toward Quetta. The attack took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the Afghan border.[1], [2]
The published tolls do not describe the dead in the same way. Al Jazeera’s police account initially described at least 11 security personnel killed and 30 people wounded. Geo News, citing a regional police officer, identified six police officers and two customs officers among the dead and reported 35 injured. It also reported civilian deaths, including two women and a child. Those descriptions should remain tied to the officials and reports that supplied them while the casualty picture is changing.[1], [2]
Emergency service Rescue 1122 sent teams from Darazinda to help the wounded and take them to hospital, according to the account retained by Al Jazeera. Geo News said the Federal Board of Revenue named two customs officers killed at the post and reported four other customs staff injured. Geo News also carried a separate security-source allegation of fire on an ambulance; the Al Jazeera checkpoint report does not establish that second attack. The checkpoint blast itself is the event both publishers report.[1], [2]
