Pakistan - Peshawar unrest

Suicide bomber kills three at police checkpoint

Article published on the 2009-11-09 Latest update 2009-11-09 10:50 TU

A bomb disposal team at the scene of Monday's suicide bomb attack
(Photo: Reuters)

Three people were killed Monday in the second suicide attack in the Pakistani city of Peshawar in 24 hours as militants stepped up efforts to avenge a major offensive against the Taliban.

Police said the bomber got out of a rickshaw and detonated his explosives at a police checkpoint on the outer ring road of the north-western metropolis, which runs into the Al-Qaeda and Taliban territory.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan, which has suffered a wave of Islamist bombings since July 2007, has been rocked by a spike in bloodshed killing more than 350 people since the start of October and forcing troops onto the offensive in the tribal belt.

"The driver stopped his rickshaw at the checkpoint and a police constable asked him to get out but he appeared reluctant," policeman Asmatullah Khan told AFP.

"The constable tried to drag him out. He blew himself up soon after stepping out of the vehicle. The rickshaw driver also died."

Officials said the dead included a policeman and two civilians.

The blast destroyed two vehicles, left the rickshaw a mangled wreck, damaged a police van and splattered blood on the road at the small checkpoint where police erected barricades to search cars.

The attack came 24 hours after a suicide strike in a crowded cattle market in Peshawar, where devout Muslims are already making preparations to buy meat for the Eid al-Adha festival later this month.

The death toll from that incident rose to 14 on Monday, with the victims including a local mayor, who was the target of the bombing.

There was no claim of responsibility for Monday's bombing but Pakistan's security forces have been in the crosshairs of brazen Taliban attacks since unleashing a major ground and air offensive in South Waziristan on October 17.