Pakistani Taliban deny attack on convoy of foreign ambassadors

ISLAMABAD – The Pakistani Taliban on Monday denied involvement in a bomb attack on a police convoy escorting foreign ambassadors in the country's restive northwest, but authorities said they were still trying to determine who was behind it.

Most of the ambassadors and senior envoys were traveling with their families to the Swat Valley, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, on Sunday when the attack occurred in Malam Jabba, one of Pakistan's two ski resorts in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but Mohammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan), denied detonating the bomb that hit a police vehicle accompanying the convoy.

One policeman was killed and four others were injured in the attack. The attack was strongly condemned by Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other politicians.

The envoys were all unharmed, but the attack suggested there had been a security breach.

“It was certainly a security breach as the convoy's route was known only to the police and the bomb disposal unit had reportedly cleared the route,” said Abdullah Khan, a defense analyst and executive director of the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.

“An insider apparently passed on information about the travel plans of foreign ambassadors to the militants,” he added.

Khan said the attack signaled a change in tactics by insurgents, who had previously targeted security forces.

Pakistani defence analyst Syed Muhammad Ali said there was a need for better coordination between federal authorities and police regarding such high-level visits to the northwest, where there has been a rise in violence.

The convoy carried ambassadors and officials from Indonesia, Portugal, Kazakhstan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, Iran, Russia and Tajikistan. All of them later returned to the capital Islamabad, according to Pakistan's foreign ministry.

In a statement, TTP said it had nothing to do with the attack. TTP is a separate group but also a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, which seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their withdrawal from the country after 20 years of war.

Many TTP leaders and fighters have found refuge and even openly lived in Afghanistan since the Taliban came to power, which also emboldened the Pakistani Taliban. The situation has strained relations between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban government, which says it will not allow anyone to use its soil to launch attacks against any country.

Authorities were investigating whether there had been a security breach, as details of the convoy's travel plans had only been released to authorities. Authorities said they were also gathering intelligence to find out who had planted the explosive device along the route.

Mohammad Ali Khan, a senior police official, said no arrests had been made so far.

Sunday's attack came months after a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into another vehicle in Shangla, a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan, killing five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver.

The Chinese victims were construction workers and engineers working on the Dasu Dam, Pakistan's largest hydroelectric project. Since then, Pakistan has tightened security measures for foreigners and envoys traveling to the region.

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Associated Press writer Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.