ISLAMABAD (TIP): At least 23 people were killed and 60 wounded on Tuesday when a suicide bomber rammed his motorcycle into a government office gate at Mardan in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Police officer Saeed Wazir said the bomber blew himself up after he was stopped at the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) office gate. “The bomber was on a motorbike and he drove it into the gate after being denied entry ,” he said. Officials feared the death toll could rise as many wounded were critical.

The attack was the deadli est in Pakistan since December 2014 when Taliban terrorists slaughtered 142 people, mostly kids, in an attack on an army-run school in Peshawar. The Peshawar attack had forced the Pakistan military to intensify its anti-Taliban Zarbe-Azab operation in tribal areas bordering Afgha nistan. The operation has led to a major decline in Taliban terrorism. Jammatul Ahrar, a Pakistani Taliban faction, claimed responsibility for the at tack. “It (Nadra) was targeted because it is an important part of this war (on Taliban),” said the group’s spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan. (TNN)