Suicide bombing near Pak airbase kills five

Peshawar: A suicide car bomber on Monday attacked a police station near a Pakistan Air Force base, which is close to the northwestern city of Peshawar and the Afghan border, killing at least five and wounding 20 others.

The attacker targeted a police station at Badabher on the outskirts of the provincial capital at 7.45 am, local residents said.

The blast badly damaged the police station, a mosque and a shop.

The bomber came in a car from the direction of the Khyber Agency. The car struck the wall between the police station and the mosque. The mosque collapsed due to the blast and the police station was damaged. A nearby market was also damaged," said Shahibzada Anees, the district administration chief.

As per the latest news report, a state of emergency has been declared in the local hospitals. The injured and bodies are being taken to the hospital.

Relief workers as well as police have already kick-started the relief action.

According to reports, some children and a woman are also among the injured. A witness said he had seen schoolbags and text books lying at the site of the blast.

Police have cordoned off the blast site.

This was the fifth terrorist attack in Peshawar and its surrounding areas in the past four days.

In the meantime, suspected Taliban gunmen shot dead a pro-government ethnic Pashtun tribal elder in the Bajaur region, north of Peshawar, a government official in the region said.

Militants have killed hundreds of pro-government tribal leaders over recent years.

An anti-Taliban Mayor in Badabher area escaped an attempt on his life by burqa-clad militants yesterday while 12 people were killed in a suicide car bomb attack on a police check post on the outskirts of the city on Saturday.

North West Frontier Province Governor Owais Ghani and Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti condemned today's attack.

Two suicide car bombers struck ISI operational headquarters in Peshawar on Friday, killing 17 people while a Pakistani employee of the Iranian consulate in the city was gunned down a day earlier.

The city of Peshawar, near the Afghan border, has seen several bomb attacks since the Pakistani Army began an offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan last month.

Militants have hit back by stepping up attacks on towns and cities, killing several hundred people.

The Army offensive in South Waziristan is aimed at rooting out Pakistani Taliban militants. The United States says Pakistani government action against militants in border enclaves is vital for the US effort in neighbouring Afghanistan.

On Friday, a suicide car bomb exploded at an office of Pakistan's main intelligence agency in Peshawar, killing at least 10 people. The Taliban said it carried out that attack, as well as a suicide bombing at a police station in the northwestern town of Bakkakhel in which seven people were killed.

The military says it has killed more than 520 militants in the offensive in South Waziristan.