PESHAWAR: A bomb targeting a tribal elder allied to the Pakistan government killed six people and wounded 11 in a northwestern town yesterday, police said.
The attack took place in the town of Doaba, 190km west of the capital Islamabad and near the tribal belt where Taliban and other Al Qaeda-linked militants have strongholds.
“A remote-controlled device planted in a vehicle owned by Malik Habibullah, a local pro-government elder, went off, killing six people and injuring 11,” local police chief Sajjad Khan said.
He said Habibullah was not in the car when the bomb exploded.
Troops have for years been locked in deadly battles with domestic insurgents in parts of the northwest.
The US has in the past accused Pakistan of not doing enough to crack down on the militants, who also plot attacks on Western targets and in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, two policemen were killed while defusing a bomb in the district of Swabi, 50km northwest of Islamabad, police said.
“They had defused four bombs planted near a government boys’ school but a fifth bomb exploded while being defused, killing them,” local police chief Mian Muhammad Saeed said. AFP
