At least 24 persons were killed and several others injured on Monday in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the Afghanistan border, AP reported.

Station House Officer Zafar Khan of Tirah police told AP that explosives stored at a Pakistani Taliban compound in the Tirah Valley area had detonated, killing 24 persons, including 14 militants and 10 civilians.

The compound was being used as a factory for producing roadside bombs, AP quoted him as saying.

However, several provincial leaders, including National Assembly member Iqbal Afridi, claimed that aerial bombings were carried out by security forces as part of counter-terrorism operation in the remote border region, AFP reported.

Another parlimantarian from the region, Sohail Khan Afridi, also alleged that the blast was “nothing less than an attack on unarmed civilians”.

Both MPs belong to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the party founded by former Prime Minister Imran Khan. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is in power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The Pakistani Taliban have stepped up attacks on security forces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in recent months.

Pakistan’s security forces have been carrying out operations against the group in Khyber, Bajaur and other northwestern districts.

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