Fresh wave of violence claims 8 lives across Pakistan

Separate incidents of gun and bomb attacks have claimed lives of at least three soldiers and five civilians in different violence-wracked regions of Pakistan, security officials said. In the first incident on Sunday, three soldiers were killed and ten other injured after a powerful roadside bomb struck a military convoy of up to 20 vehicles in the country’s troubled Northwest, press tv reported. According to a military statement, the deadly incident happened in the Boya area of North Waziristan, a stronghold of militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. "At least three soldiers embraced shahadat (martyrdom) in an Improvised Explosive Device explosion," the statement read. No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Pakistani officials often blame pro-Taliban militant groups for such attacks. Pakistani security forces have launched several operations in the troubled Northwest and Southwest in a bid to flush out militants from the tribal zone. Despite the Pakistani government's operations against pro-Taliban militants and associated groups, they have been able to spread their influence in various regions of the country. Separately, a doctor and four other people were killed when heavily-armed gunmen attacked two clinics in Landhi area of the Southern port city of Karachi. Karachi has experienced a fresh spate of violence and targeted killings over the past few months. Sectarian, political and ethnic violence in Karachi has killed hundreds of people in Pakistan’s main commercial hub so far this year. Pakistan's top court has ordered the government law enforcement agencies to take immediate action against pro-Taliban militants in the country's largest city. Thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives in bombings and other militant attacks since 2001, when Pakistan entered an alliance with the US in the so-called war on terrorism.