The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for Tuesday's failed suicide attack on an army center in the country's northwest.
A group of three "suicide bombers" tried to enter the army center in Mardan city in northwest Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa but the security guards foiled their attempt and shot them dead, the police chief in the region said, Xinhua reported.
Deputy Inspector General Police Akhtar Ali Shah said that three army guards were injured, who were shifted to an army hospital in the city.
Shah said that the guards at the gate of "Punjab Regiment Center" frustrated the attempt by the bombers and opened fire on them.
A purported Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umer said that the attack was reaction to a recent report by the Human Rights Watch which alleged the Pakistani security forces have carried out 238 extrajudicial killings of people in the Swat Valley since September last year.
Military spokesman Athar Abbas said that the army had sent officials to the area to carry out investigation into the reports.
"Today an attack on the Punjab regiment at Mardan was the first reaction to this report," said the Taliban spokesman in an email sent to the media.
Umer said that the rights group has called for investigation into the extrajudicial killings of the militant but he said Taliban do not trust the Pakistani institutions to hold a fair probe.
He said the Pakistani institutions have "failed" to investigate the killings of prominent leaders including former military ruler General Zia ul Haq, who was killed in a military plane crash in the mid-80s.
"The government of Pakistan is also not eligible to do any such investigation," the Taliban spokesman said.