An explosives-laden vehicle detonated while being driven towards a security checkpoint in Bajaur, local police official Zafar Khan told The Associated Press news agency, adding that a girl was killed when a nearby building collapsed due to the force of the blast.

The attack came after rescue officials said two people were killed earlier on Monday when explosives attached to a parked motorcycle detonated near the entrance of a police station in Bannu, another district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa near the Afghan border.

Officials said at least 17 people were injured in the Bannu attack.

Reporting on violence in Bajaur, the AFP news agency said a suicide bomber drove a vehicle rigged with explosives into the wall of a religious college in the district.

As a result, “police and Frontier Corps personnel present inside the seminary were martyred”, a security official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

It was not known if the explosions reported at the security checkpoint in Bajaur and the seminary blast in the district were linked or separate attacks.

In another incident reported by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police, three police personnel and as many rebel fighters were killed during a search operation in the province’s Shangla district. Police said the deceased fighters were involved in “attacks targeting Chinese nationals”.

Pakistan has seen a surge in unprecedented attacks against its security forces since 2021, coinciding with the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan.

More than 2,400 deaths were recorded for the first three quarters of 2025, an increase over the previous year’s death toll of about 2,500 in attacks across Pakistan.

Islamabad has blamed the majority of the attacks on the Pakistan Taliban, known by the acronym TTP, whose leaders are now allegedly based in Afghanistan.

TTP members hail largely from the tribal areas of Pakistan, along the Afghan border.