Pakistan - blasts

Anti-Taliban cleric dies in suicide car bomb attack

Article published on the 2009-09-28 Latest update 2009-09-28 13:33 TU

Men stand near the bodies of those killed in an earlier Taliban attack in Bannu, in the north-west frontiers province, on Saturday
(Photo: Reuters)

An anti-Taliban tribal elder and three guards have been killed in a suicide car bomb blast in north-west Pakistan, which is reeling from a spike in deadly militant attacks.

The attacker rammed a car packed with explosives into a vehicle carrying Abdul Hakeem, a pro-government local leader in a town in Bannu district, on the edge of the lawless tribal areas where Islamist militants hold sway.

Hakeem and three other tribesmen who were working as his security guards were killed instantly and a woman passing by was also wounded, said Iqbal Khan, a police official in Bannu.

Hakeem was a prominent tribal elder and local Islamic cleric and had recently issued a decree against the suicide bombing tactics increasingly employed by insurgents battling the government.

The blast struck in Bakakhel town, just on the outskirts of Bannu district, about 150 kilometres south of provincial capital Peshawar.

Two suicide car bombings on Saturday left 13 people dead in Bannu town and killed 11 in Peshawar, a bloody weekend after a lull in insurgent violence following the death in August of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

Pakistan's military has vowed to wipe out Islamist militants from the northwest. In April, troops launched a blistering assault in a bid to dislodge Pakistani Taliban from northwest Swat valley.