2 killed, 25 injured in landmine blast in NW Pakistan

KARACHI, Pakistan

The death toll from a landmine explosion in northwest Pakistan has shot up to two, while 25 were injured, police said on Thursday.

The incident took place in Shawal area of the restive North Waziristan tribal district that sits near Afghanistan's border, when a passenger van carrying laborers hit a landmine on Wednesday.

It follows a "cross-border" attack on Pakistani security forces in northwestern Chitral district, which borders neighboring Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least four army troops and 12 suspected militants.

No group has claimed responsibility for the explosion, the latest in a series of similar incidents.

Last month, 13 laborers were killed and several others injured in a landmine explosion in the Shawal area.

North Waziristan had served as the headquarters of Pakistani Taliban's mother organization, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan until the group was pushed towards Afghanistan following a series of military operations in the tribal region since 2014.