PESHAWAR, Pakistan, May 12, (AP): A powerful bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying police officers in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing at least two officers and injuring three others, police said. The attack happened near a roadside open market in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a local police chief, Masood Khan, said.

He said the dead and wounded were transported to a nearby hospital. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan, or TTP, who often target security forces and civilians.

TTP is a separate group but a close ally of the Afghan Taleban, who seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021. Many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuaries and have even been living openly in Afghanistan since the Taleban takeover, which also emboldened the Pakistani Taliban.