Bomb kills one, injures six at Pakistan-Afghan border crossing

A bomb in a pushcart killed at least one person and wounded six others Friday at the main border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan, officials said.

The blast came at the Torkham crossing, the main frontier post in Pakistan’s restive northwest. The bomb was apparently hidden in a pushcart used by travellers to ferry goods across the frontier.

“The bomb killed one person and wounded six others, two of them seriously,” senior local administration official Daftar Khan told AFP.

Another senior local administration official, Tayyab Abdullah, also confirmed the incident and casualties.

Torkham lies in Khyber region, one of the seven semi-autonomous tribal districts where the military has been battling Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants for over a decade.

The border crossing has been used extensively by NATO supply convoys transporting goods overland from Pakistan’s main port Karachi to forces in Afghanistan.

The Pakistan army began a major campaign against Taliban and other militant strongholds in the North Waziristan tribal area in June last year and authorities have now vowed to intensify operations both in the border regions and across the country.