Peshawar: Authorities on Sunday registered an FIR in connection with the suicide blast during a wedding ceremony in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of northwest Pakistan, saying the attack targeted a ‘good Taliban’.
At least six people were killed, and nine others were injured in the suicide blast during the wedding celebrations at the residence of a peace committee member, Noor Alam Mehsud, in the Dera Ismail Khan district of the province on Friday night.
Banned terror outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is behind the blast at Mehsud’s place, police said. Officials said five people had died and 10 others were injured when the blast caused the roof of the room where people were reportedly dancing to collapse. The injured were taken to a nearby hospital where one more person died on Saturday.
On Sunday, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Dera Ismail Khan district said Mehsud’s residence was targetted as he is the peace committee chief for the area.
The FIR filed by the CTD said DNA samples of the victims and other forensic evidence have been collected.
Police officials said that among those killed was Mehsud, a ‘good Taliban’ referring to a term used to describe a former militant who has surrendered to the state. “The TTP targets the good Taliban as they support the forces’ war against terror,” police said.
Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi strongly condemned the blast and sought a report from the province’s inspector general of police.
Earlier this month, armed assailants had killed four members of a peace committee in the Bannu district.
In November 2025, seven people were killed when a peace committee office was attacked in the same district.
Pakistan witnessed a sharp escalation in militant violence in 2025 despite record militant deaths. Terrorist attacks rose by 34 per cent, while terrorism-related fatalities increased by 21 per cent year-on-year.
A total of 699 terrorist attacks were recorded across the country during the year.
The violence claimed at least 1,034 lives and left 1,366 people injured, reflecting a continued upward trend in militancy since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, according to data released by the Islamabad-based Pak Institute for Peace Studies.
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