Key USA Ally Unfazed by Suicide Bomb Attack that Kills 6 in his Home

"The Pushtun area of Pakistan is our Mother," announced political leader Asfandyar Wali Khan minutes after a suicide bomber exploded himself in Wali's home, "And we will not forsake this mother for any terrorist."

Wali is Chairman of the liberal progressive ANP (Awami National Party) which swept recent elections in his home province of NWFP that borders Afghanistan. Wali and his party won on an anti-extremist, anit-terrorist platform. "A hundred such attacks will not deter us from our policies" stated the defiant Wali.

The autonomous tribal areas of Pakistan, also called FATA, which recent USA analysts have termed an epi-center of terrorism, are geographically adjacent to NWFP -- lying between it and Afghanistan. The Pakistan Army has been undertaking aggressive operations against terrorist hideouts in FATA -- the repercussions of which have resounded in the Marriot Islamabad which was blown up a fortnight ago and, now, Wali's home.

The bomber who was wearing a bullet proof jacket was shot at by policmen when he ran through a metal detector, but the jacket absorbed the bullets and did not impede the bomber's movements. Finally Wali's personal body guard wrestled the bomber to the ground -- both blew up in the process. Eye witnesses reported that a green sedan with four people sitting in it had disgorged the bomber who was unshaven and was mumbling incoherently. "He looked like a mad man" said one eye witness.

But Wali had the final word: "Till even one ANP worker is alive, we wil fight the terrorists."