New Delhi

A police officer was killed and six people were injured in a suicide car bombing by two terrorists — a male and a female — at a checkpoint in Pakistan's capital city Islamabad on Friday. According to the police, the occupants of the car were terrorists and the explosion took place when the vehicle was asked to stop for routine checking. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the attack. The incident took place in Sector I-10/4 in Islamabad's upscale residential area, located barely 15km away from the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where Pakistan's powerful military establishment is located.

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The Pakistani Taliban spokesperson claimed responsibility for the bombing saying it was done to avenge the death of senior leader Abdul Wali, who was killed in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan's Paktika province.

"Our initial information says that there was a man and a woman in the car," Islamabad operations police chief, Sohail Zafar told reporters on Friday, adding as the police officers chased the car, it blew up, a report by news agency Reuters said. 

Zafar said it was a suicide blast and the injured were four police officers and six civilians. 

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ALSO READ | Pakistan: Four cops killed after attack on police station in Lakki Marwat district

The incident has raised fears of the presence of terrorists in Islamabad, which is considered to be one of the safest cities in Pakistan. 

The country has seen a series of terror attacks in recent times. 

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On December 18, suspected terrorists attacked a police station in the Lakki Marwat district, killing four police personnel. Three days later, dozens of armed terrorists stormed a police station in Wana city of South Waziristan, injuring a police constable. 

In Bannu, terrorists, mostly belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, seized a counter-terrorism centre on December 18 and took hostages to negotiate with government authorities.

The government began hostage talks a day later. On Tuesday (December 20), security forces retook the counter-terrorism centre and rescued all hostages. Twenty-five of the 35 terrorists were killed in the raid while one hostage and two commandos died in the operation. 

(With inputs from agencies)

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