Blast kills 7 anti-Taliban militiamen
2013-02-14 14:00
Parachinar - A roadside bomb hit a vehicle carrying
members of an anti-Taliban militia in north-western Pakistan on Thursday,
killing seven militiamen, a police spokesperson said.
Nine members of the militia were also wounded in the
attack in Stanzai village in the Orakzai tribal region bordering Afghanistan,
said Fazal Naeem.
The militiamen were on their way to a meeting to discuss
strategy against the Pakistani Taliban at the time of the attack, he said.
No one claimed responsibility for the blast but suspicion
fell of Pakistani Taliban who have carried out many such attacks and killed
scores of militiamen for supporting military operations against the Taliban.
The latest attack came hours after five suicide bombers
attacked a police station in the country's north-western city of Bannu,
wounding one police officer.
The city's Police Chief Nisar Tanoli said three of the
bombers detonated their explosives vests while the police shot dead the other
two.
Pakistani Taliban spokesperson Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed
responsibility for the attack in Bannu, describing it as retaliation for the
killings of eight militants whose bullet-riddled bodies were found abandoned in
the neighbouring North Waziristan tribal area.
Thursday's attacks - both in the country's northwest but
in different areas - came at a time when many of the country's main political
parties were meeting in the capital, Islamabad to discuss an offer of peace
talks by the Pakistani Taliban.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said the
government was ready to hold peace talks with the Taliban, who have been waging
a bloody insurgency in Pakistan that has killed thousands of people.
- SAPA
