Pakistan: Attempted terror attack foiled in Parachinar (Kurram Tribal Agency) May 12

Event

Security forces prevented a major terror attack in Parachinar, located near the Pak-Afghan border in the Kurram Tribal Agency on Friday, May 12. Border guards fired at a vehicle they identified as a potential threat as it attempted to enter Pakistan from the Paktia province of Afghanistan. The shots fired at the vehicle detonated the explosives hidden inside of it.

Context

Parachinar suffered two violent incidents on March 31, when 23 people were killed after a car bomb detonated near an Imam¬bargah at midday and later that day another person died after security forces opened fire on a crowd trying to hold a demonstration in front of the political agent’s office in protest against increasing terrorist attacks. Earlier this year, on January 21, 25 people died and 87 were wounded when a bomb went off during peak business hours at the crowded vegetable market in the city.

Advice

Due to a high threat of terrorism, kidnap, and sectarian violence throughout the country, authorities advise against all travel to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, to the districts of Charsadda, Kohat, Tank, Bannu, Lakki, Dera Ismail Khan, Swat, Buner and Lower Dir in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, to the city of Peshawar and districts south of the city. Western governments usually advise against all but essential travel to the Kalesh Valley, the Bamoboret Valley and Arandu District to the south and west of Chitral in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, to the city of Quetta, to the city of Nawabshah in Sindh Province, and areas of interior Sindh to the north of Nawabshah.