The explosion took place in the town of Wana, the capital of South Waziristan district in the rugged Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that shares a border with Afghanistan, as locals gathered for a jirga, or a council of elders.

“A local tribal elder Saifur Rahman was holding a jirga at his guest house when a bomb exploded, killing at least seven people while injuring 21 others,” Usman Khan, a local police official, told AFP.

“The nature of the blast is not clear yet,” he added.

A senior administration official also confirmed the incident and the death toll to AFP, adding that Rahman was taken to the hospital.

South Waziristan is one of seven remote districts bordering Afghanistan that remained a rebel stronghold for years, where the military has conducted several operations.

Islamabad has encouraged tribal vigilante forces, known locally as peace committees, for years to defend their villages against rebels, including Pakistan’s Taliban.

Most have been disbanded following a dramatic improvement in security across the country after several military operations, the last of which was launched in 2014.

Pakistan is grappling with a broad uptick in insurgency since the Afghan Taliban’s return to power in Kabul in 2021.

Islamabad claims rebels are now taking shelter in Afghanistan as they prepare attacks.

Last year was the deadliest in nearly a decade in Pakistan, according to the Centre for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad, with the vast majority of the attacks near the western border with Afghanistan.