India, Sept. 22 -- At least 24 people, including women and children, were killed and several others injured on Monday when a cache of explosives stored at a Pakistani Taliban compound detonated in northwest Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police said.

The incident occurred in the Matur Dara area of Tirah Valley in Khyber district, near the Afghanistan border. Local authorities rejected claims that the site was struck by Pakistan Air Force jets, stating instead that the explosion was triggered by bomb-making materials stored inside the compound.

According to Tirah Police Station's Station House Officer Zafar Khan, the dead included 14 militants and 10 civilians. Witnesses in the area, however, alleged that airstrikes were carried...