<p>Three people were killed and 23 injured Wednesday when a suicide bomber targeted a police truck in western Pakistan, an official said, an attack claimed by the domestic chapter of the Taliban.</p>.<p>The Pakistan Taliban -- known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) -- are separate from the Taliban in Afghanistan but share a common hardline Islamist ideology.</p>.<p>On Monday, the group announced an end to a shaky ceasefire with Islamabad declared over the summer and ordered nationwide attacks to resume.</p>.<p>Senior police official Azhar Mehesar told AFP the blast targeted a police team preparing to escort polio vaccinators in the city of Quetta and that those killed "include a policeman, a woman and a child".</p>.<p>In a statement to AFP, the TTP claimed responsibility for the attack and said it would soon share further details.</p>.<p>The group was founded in 2007 by Pakistani jihadists who fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan in the 1990s before opposing Islamabad's support for American intervention there after 9/11.</p>.<p>For a time they held vast tracts of Pakistan's rugged tribal belt, imposing a radical interpretation of Islamic law and patrolling territory just 140 kilometres (85 miles) from the Pakistan capital.</p>.<p>The Pakistani military came down hard after 2014 when TTP militants raided a school for children of army personnel and killed nearly 150 people, most of them pupils.</p>.<p>Its fighters were largely routed into neighbouring Afghanistan, but Islamabad claims the Taliban in Kabul are now giving the TTP a foothold to stage assaults across the border.</p>.<p>In the year since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, Pakistan has seen a 50 percent surge in militant attacks, according to the Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS).</p>.<p>Most of these attacks have been focused in the western provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, which neighbour Afghanistan.</p>.<p>The 2014 school assault deeply shocked Pakistan, and since then the TTP have vowed only to target state security forces.</p>.<p>Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only nations in the world where wild polio is still endemic.</p>.<p>Polio vaccination teams are routinely escorted by police in the western regions, and the TTP has made a habit of ambushing officers as they travel into those restive remote areas.</p>.<p>Pakistan officials on Monday launched a week-long immunisation campaign aiming to inoculate over 13 million children living in "high-risk districts".</p>.<p>In April, Pakistan reported its first case of polio in 15 months. Since then 20 cases have been reported, according to the government-funded End Polio Pakistan programme.</p>
<p>Three people were killed and 23 injured Wednesday when a suicide bomber targeted a police truck in western Pakistan, an official said, an attack claimed by the domestic chapter of the Taliban.</p>.<p>The Pakistan Taliban -- known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) -- are separate from the Taliban in Afghanistan but share a common hardline Islamist ideology.</p>.<p>On Monday, the group announced an end to a shaky ceasefire with Islamabad declared over the summer and ordered nationwide attacks to resume.</p>.<p>Senior police official Azhar Mehesar told AFP the blast targeted a police team preparing to escort polio vaccinators in the city of Quetta and that those killed "include a policeman, a woman and a child".</p>.<p>In a statement to AFP, the TTP claimed responsibility for the attack and said it would soon share further details.</p>.<p>The group was founded in 2007 by Pakistani jihadists who fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan in the 1990s before opposing Islamabad's support for American intervention there after 9/11.</p>.<p>For a time they held vast tracts of Pakistan's rugged tribal belt, imposing a radical interpretation of Islamic law and patrolling territory just 140 kilometres (85 miles) from the Pakistan capital.</p>.<p>The Pakistani military came down hard after 2014 when TTP militants raided a school for children of army personnel and killed nearly 150 people, most of them pupils.</p>.<p>Its fighters were largely routed into neighbouring Afghanistan, but Islamabad claims the Taliban in Kabul are now giving the TTP a foothold to stage assaults across the border.</p>.<p>In the year since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, Pakistan has seen a 50 percent surge in militant attacks, according to the Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS).</p>.<p>Most of these attacks have been focused in the western provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, which neighbour Afghanistan.</p>.<p>The 2014 school assault deeply shocked Pakistan, and since then the TTP have vowed only to target state security forces.</p>.<p>Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only nations in the world where wild polio is still endemic.</p>.<p>Polio vaccination teams are routinely escorted by police in the western regions, and the TTP has made a habit of ambushing officers as they travel into those restive remote areas.</p>.<p>Pakistan officials on Monday launched a week-long immunisation campaign aiming to inoculate over 13 million children living in "high-risk districts".</p>.<p>In April, Pakistan reported its first case of polio in 15 months. Since then 20 cases have been reported, according to the government-funded End Polio Pakistan programme.</p>