<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">The Pakistan Taliban claimed a suicide attack that killed at least one police officer Friday in the country's capital, the first such attack in the city for years.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Islamabad has largely been spared the low-level attacks carried out in Pakistan's megacities of Lahore and Karachi, and also along the border areas near Afghanistan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Senior police official Sohail Zafar Chattha said officers had been following a suspicious taxi occupied by a male driver and a woman passenger when he detonated a device inside the car.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"They were stopped and the long-haired man was asked to come out," Chattha told AFP at the scene.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He came out, but quickly went back inside and pressed a button that blew up the car."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He said the fate of the passenger was not certain, but a policeman was confirmed dead and six people were wounded -- including four officers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) later claimed responsibility for the blast, saying the attack "on the enemies of Islam" was in retaliation for the recent killing of a senior member.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The group, which is separate from the Afghan Taliban but with a similar hardline Islamist ideology, called off a stop-start ceasefire with the government in November.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Haji Mohammad Saeed, 60, a retired government official living in the neighbourhood where the attack happened, said authorities should end all negotiations with the TTP.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"They are taking advantage of this dialogue and causing violence."</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pakistan was for a time plagued with almost daily bomb blasts across the country, but security vastly improved after a military crackdown that began in 2016.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Violence against security officials has risen in the northwestern border areas with Afghanistan over the past year -- blamed on militant groups linked to the Pakistan Taliban.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Earlier this week, Pakistani defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif called for a fresh security operation against the TTP after suspected militants being held at a police station overpowered their captors and held them hostage for three days.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Terrorism is on the rise again," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There's a spillover effect from the situation in Afghanistan and that's affecting Pakistan, we have to launch this operation." BSS</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>