A ROADSIDE bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying security forces in restive north-west Pakistan, killing four police officers and wounding five others, officials said today.

The deadly attack came the same day two schoolchildren were killed when a mortar exploded near them elsewhere in the north-west.

The roadside bombing happened on Wednesday in South Waziristan district, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, local police officer Dilawar Khan said.

No-one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Later the same day, a mortar fired by insurgents landed near a road in the Tirah valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Wednesday, killing two schoolchildren who were going to school on foot, police said.

The Pakistani military has launched dozens of operations against the Pakistani Taliban and other insurgents in South Waziristan and other former tribal regions nearby, but the militants continue to carry out frequent attacks.

Today, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met Chinese ambassador Jiang Zaidong in Islamabad to brief him about an investigation into an attack on Tuesday in which a guard shot and wounded two Chinese nationals at a textile mill in the port city of Karachi.

China has frequently demanded better security for its nationals who are in Pakistan to work for Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.