A suicide bomber, disguised as a woman in a burqa, struck at a police check-post on the outskirts of Bannu on Monday, killing at least 16 people, including four policemen, officials said. It was the latest in a string of deadly attacks and came days before President Pervez Musharraf seeks re-election.
"A man disguised in a burqa got out of an auto-rickshaw when police stopped the vehicle for search at a checkpoint. He then blew himself up," police officer Asar Islam told AFP.
Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said 16 people were killed and 29 were wounded, and added that authorities were still investigating the blast. Officials said four policemen and four women were among those killed. "We have received some severed limbs and are trying to ascertain if they belonged to the bomber," said Mohammad Usman, a doctor at a hospital in Bannu.
Police sources said they had earlier received intelligence that male suicide bombersm, dressed in all-covering women's burqas, a common garment in conservative north-western Pakistan, would soon launch attacks. They had beefed up security at all checkpoints, and the vehicle carrying the bomber was intercepted, as a result. But the attacker blew himself up before they could check it, sources said.
Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad confirmed that it was a suicide blast, but dismissed earlier witness reports that the bombing targeted a military convoy passing through the town. In a separate incident, militants shot dead a paramilitary soldier before dawn in North Waziristan, security officials said.
The rebels raided a check-post in the border town of Datta Khel and fled in darkness after shooting the trooper, apparently using a gun fitted with a silencer, one official said.