Bomber Kills 14 at Pakistan Protest

A suicide bomber detonated explosives outside a police station during a protest in Pakistan's Swat district on Sunday evening, authorities said, killing at least 14 people. The blast struck a busy intersection in the northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province during a civil society demonstration, AFP reports. Eight police officers were among the dead, and 22 people were injured, said a Swat official. A body believed to be that of the attacker was also recovered. The demonstrators had gathered near the police station and were chanting anti-militant slogans and demanding peace, the police chief said, per the AP.

Police said the bomber tried to force entry into the police station but was stopped at the main gate before detonating. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the toll would have been much higher had not officers "sacrificed their lives to stop the suicide bomber from entering the police station," per the New York Times. No group has claimed responsibility. Militant violence has been increasing in the region, where security forces are battling the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. Earlier Sunday, a homemade bomb blast in Peshawar wounded four officers in an attack the TTP said it carried out. A military spokesman said last week that hundreds of security personnel and civilians have been killed in militant attacks and ensuing operations this year, as tensions grow between Pakistan and Afghanistan over cross-border militancy and airstrikes.