At least 12 people have been killed and 30 wounded in a suicide bombing at a roadside police checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan, police said.

The attack took place on Saturday in the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The blast occurred near Aman Mela in the Darazinda area of the district, according to rescue services.

Police chief Safdar Baloch said most of those killed and wounded were security personnel and passersby. The injured include police officers, customs personnel and two civilians.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion fell on the Pakistan Taliban, known by the acronym TTP.

The armed group and its affiliates have launched a number of recent attacks in the region. The TTP is separate from but closely allied with the Afghan Taliban, which returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021.

Rescue teams from the Darazinda station reached the scene and began relief operations, providing medical assistance to the wounded and transporting them to hospital.

Pakistan has seen an increase in armed attacks in recent years, many of them claimed by the TTP and the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist group mainly active in neighbouring Balochistan province.

Pakistani officials have repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban of allowing TTP members to operate from Afghan soil and have demanded that Kabul prevent cross-border attacks into Pakistan.

The latest attack comes two days after fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan along their southwestern border killed at least 13 Afghan Taliban fighters, according to Pakistan's government.

It follows Pakistani strikes on alleged militant hideouts inside Afghanistan earlier this week. The renewed hostilities threaten mediation efforts by China, Turkiye, Qatar and Saudi Arabia aimed at securing lasting peace between the two countries.