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4 dead in suicide attack
09/11/2007 16:12 - (SA)
Peshwar - A suicide bomber blew himself up at the house of a Pakistani minister in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Friday, killing four people, police said.
Federal minister for political affairs Amir Muqam, who is also the local head of President Pervez Musharraf's ruling party, told state television that he was unharmed in the blast.
"I am not scared. I have survived two attacks in the past," said Muqam, adding that his cousin and a former provincial official were wounded in the attack.
City police chief Abdul Majid Marwat told AFP four people were killed.
"It was a suicide attack. The attacker managed to enter the minister's residence and then detonated explosives," Marwat said, adding that two security officials were among the four dead.
Involved in negotiations
Muqam, apparently the target of the attack, has been closely involved in negotiations to end a Taliban-style rebellion in Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley.
A close ally of Musharraf, he once said that the military ruler had given him a pistol as a gift in return for services to the party.
The attack was the first on a civilian target in Pakistan since President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency on Saturday citing a rise in Islamic militancy.
It came as former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto was placed under house arrest to stop her leading a protest against emergency rule, further ratcheting up tensions in the country.
Pakistan has been wracked by violence since government troops stormed the Al-Qaeda-linked Red Mosque in Islamabad in July, killing scores of alleged militants inside.
High rate of suicide attacks
The interior ministry said on Tuesday that a record 667 people have been killed and 2 000 injured in "terrorist" attacks, including an unprecedented 43 suicide bombings, during 2007.
Officials said that of this year's 43 suicide attacks, the highest in the country's 60-year history, the majority were in mainland Pakistan outside the troubled tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, has used his controversial military role to push ahead with a US-backed campaign against Islamic militants in the lawless tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
The unrest in the tribal belt has spilled over into the former tourist area of Swat, where followers loyal to a pro-Taliban cleric have been fighting security forces for the past month.
A suicide bomber targeted Bhutto's homecoming rally in the southern city of Karachi on October 18, killing 139 people.
The United States has said that Musharraf's efforts against militants are a key factor in continuing to support him despite its criticisms of his imposition of emergency rule.
- SAPA
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