At least 13 people were injured on Monday in an improvised explosive device (IED) targeting a police van, exploded in the jurisdiction of Sro Kali area of Shabqadar in Charsadda district, police officials said.
The injured included four policemen and nine civilians. A passenger van was also damaged in the blast.
The banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack in an email sent to journalists.
The police van was on a routine patrol in Sro area of Charsadda’s Shabqadar tehsil when the bomb went off along the roadside, injuring four police officials and five passers-by.
Police and rescue officials arrived at the scene and shifted the injured to tehsil headquarters hospital.
According to hospital administration, three of the injured who were in critical condition were shifted to Peshawar.
Shabqadar tehsil is close to Mohmand tribal region, which is one of seven semi-autonomous tribal regions in the northwest, where Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda-linked militants were said to have carved out strongholds.
In March this year at least 16 people were killed and more than 20 others injured when a suicide bomber hit the gates of a local court building in Shabqadar