The Japan Times - Seven killed, 44 wounded in blasts inside Pakistan police station

Numerous blasts ripped through the building in Kabal town in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the latest in a string of high profile attacks targeting police in Pakistan.

"Explosions occurred within the police station, resulting in the complete collapse of the building," said Khalid Sohail, a senior police officer in the local counter-terrorism department.

Bilal Faizi, spokesman for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's provincial rescue service said "at least seven dead bodies have been recovered from the collapsed building while 44 injured are shifted to nearby hospitals."

"A series of two to three bomb explosions occurred," Akhtar Hayat Gandapur, the inspector general of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police told AFP.

He put the death toll at eight and the injured figure at more than 40 "with the majority of the victims being policemen".

The attack took place on the last day Pakistan was celebrating the Islamic Eid al-Fitr festival which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

- Police targeted -

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, however two attacks on large police bases have been linked to the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) since the start of the year.

In January, a suicide bomber detonated his vest in a mosque inside a police compound in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing more than 80 officers as the building collapsed and rained down rubble on worshippers.

The following month, five were killed when a TTP suicide squad stormed a police compound in the southern port city of Karachi, prompting an hours-long shootout.

The TTP have long targeted law enforcement officials, who they accuse of conducting extrajudicial executions.

Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic uptick in attacks since the Taliban seized control of Kabul, focussed in its border regions with Afghanistan, and Islamabad says offensives are being launched from Afghan soil.

The TTP was founded in 2007, when Pakistani militants fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan splintered off to focus attacks on Islamabad as payback for supporting the US invasion after the 9/11 attacks.

They controlled swaths of northwest Pakistan including the Swat Valley at the height of their power but were largely routed by the military after a 2014 school raid that killed nearly 150 people, mostly pupils.

The Swat Valley was also where then 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by the TTP in 2012 while campaigning for girls' education, a campaign that later earned her the Nobel Peace Prize.

A shaky six-month ceasefire between the TTP and Islamabad failed in November.

K.Inoue--JT