A roadside bomb in Pakistan kills 2 people and wounds 8

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A roadside bomb planted on a bridge struck a rickshaw in northwest Pakistan on Friday, killing at least two people and wounding eight others, officials said.

The attack happened in Mardan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police official Sabir Khan said. He said police transported the wounded people to a hospital where two were in critical condition.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and other government officials denounced the bombing.

No one claimed responsibility, but such attacks previously have been blamed on Islamic militants including the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, which seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021.

Many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuaries and are even living openly in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, which also emboldened the TTP.

Pakistan has blamed some attacks on the Islamic State group and some breakaway factions of the TTP, which insists it only targets security forces.