A soldier was martyred and several others were injured when a Frontier Corps van was targeted in a bomb blast in Peshawar’s Hayatabad area on Tuesday.

Rescue workers shifted the wounded to nearby hospitals and security forces cordoned off the bomb site.

Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan, a newly founded militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack.

“One martyr, seven injured but all stable,” a high-ranking official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Medical director of the Hayatabad Medical Complex, Professor Shehzad Akbar Khan, confirmed that the hospital received two people who were wounded by the explosion and that both were in stable condition. He said the remaining injured were taken to another hospital, CMH.

The explosion was a suicide attack that hit a vehicle of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Peshawar, police said.

Pakistan has seen an increase in attacks in recent months with several terrorism-related incidents being reported.

Last week, nine Pakistan Army soldiers were martyred after militants attacked the Zhob garrison in northern Balochistan.

Pakistan’s army said on Friday it was seriously concerned that militants had found safe havens in neighbouring Afghanistan and threatened to take an “effective response” two days after 12 of its soldiers died in two attacks.

Earlier, two security personnel embraced martyrdom and another soldier was injured during an exchange of fire with terrorists in the Balor area in Balochistan.

In March, at least 56 people were killed and 200 injured, including children, in a suicide bomb blast in Peshawar’s Kocha Risaldar area.