militant

The target was a police van which was going to pickup a polio (vaccination) team.

Police said the children had been shown videos related to Abuya by the operators of the charity homes involved where they were placed.

The assaults were the most widespread in years by ethnic forces fighting a decades-long insurgency to win secession of the province.

Authorities initially said the suspect, who was killed during the attack, was suspected of being a member of the Jemaah Islamiah group.

The Japanese survivors have been moved to a safe place in police custody, the police spokesperson said.

The main contests are expected to be between candidates backed by jailed ex-PM Imran Khan and the Pakistan Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif.

The suspects were detained in operations and police also confiscated some guns and chemicals to make bombs, a spokesperson said.

The blast killed one of the attackers and authorities "neutralised", or killed, the other, the interior minister said.

The majority of deaths were caused by improvised explosive devices including suicide bombings in mosques, education centres and markets.

The violence began when tribal groups clashed with ethnic majority Meitei people, over economic benefits and quotas given to the tribes.

Israel's air force hit Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza for a second day and Palestinian militants in the enclave began launching rockets across the border, setting off sirens.

The Taliban have killed an Islamic State militant who was the "mastermind" behind a suicide attack at Kabul's international airport in 2021.

The attack took place just a few kilometres from another attack on a village that killed at least 35 people last week.

A resident who escaped said the insurgents who killed the fishermen, suspected them of providing information to the military.

Police here have fought Islamists for years but never have they been the focus of militants' operations as they are today.