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Medics assist a man, who was injured by a suicide bomb blast in Charsadda, after he was brought to Lady Reading hospital in Peshawar - Source: Reuters -
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A teenage suicide bomber killed an anti-Taliban provincial
lawmaker in northwest Pakistan after walking into the official's
house along with guests and blowing himself up.
More than a dozen people were wounded in the attack in Swat valley,
police said.
The army, battling a Taliban insurgency, launched what it said was
a successful offensive in Swat in late April that cleared most of
the area, but it still faces pockets of resistance.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan is under growing US pressure to crack down
harder on militants in border areas to help it fight the Taliban in
Afghanistan, where President Barack Obama is expected to send
30,000 more troops to try to put down an insurgency.
That may be difficult because Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari
faces growing calls to relinquish many of his powers and analysts
say it's up to the country's powerful military to decide whether to
intensify the fight against militants.
The slain lawmaker, Shamsher Ali, was a member of the Awami
National Party, part of a coalition that rules the North West
Frontier Province.
Police said two of his brothers were wounded in the attack, one
critically.
"People were coming to exchange Eid greetings with him when a man
came and blew himself up," his relative Farooq Khan said, referring
to the Muslim holy festival which ended on Monday.
Police said the bomber's head and parts of his body were found in
the reception area of Ali's home.
Militants had destroyed another one of his homes earlier this
year.
Security forces have killed more than 2,000 fighters in the Swat
Valley, about 120 km northwest of Islamabad, in the offensive,
according to the army.
There has been no independent verification of that casualty
estimate.
Hundreds have been killed in retaliatory bombings since Pakistani
forces attacked the militant stronghold of South Waziristan, part
of a tribal region seen as a global militant hub, in October.
Many militants were believed to have fled.
The leader of the Taliban in Swat and self-styled cleric Fazlullah
telephoned the BBC last month to say he had escaped to Afghanistan
and would soon launch raids against the army.
The army said in July he was believed to have been
wounded.
The attack that killed Ali occurred in a village that was a former
headquarters of Fazlullah.
