Roadside bomb

The blast badly damaged the pick-up in a remote village close to the Afghan border, in the northwestern district of Bajaur on Thursday. Another vehicle was damaged. Eight people were wounded in the incident, which occurred in the Chamarkand area of the Bajur tribal region, according to a local government administrator. Three of the dead were anti-Taliban militiamen.

Another government official confirmed the casualties although there were fears that the death toll could rise.

The government has encouraged the formation of anti-Taliban militias, or lashkars, and in recent months their members have repeatedly been targeted by the militants. Bajaur is considered a militant stronghold and violence has persisted there since last year, when the military claimed that it had defeated Taliban and al Qaeda militants after more than a year of fierce fighting.

In another incident in the area, security forces killed three militants and arrested two others who were holed up with weapons in a house in Mingora, the main town in the Swat Valley, according to an army spokesman. Two of the militants were shot dead duirng the night by security forces, and the third blew himself up.

Children killed

The Taliban controlled Swat until the army launched a huge offensive in 2009. Mingora has been fairly peaceful since then, but the clash could stoke fears of militant resurgence. In the south, two children were killed and 11 others were wounded on Thursday when an explosive device they were playing with blew up. The incident occurred in Meo Takkar village in Sindh province, where hundreds of people have taken refuge to escape flooding affecting large tracts of land to the south. It is unclear where the children found the explosive device.

Nearly 4,700 people have been killed across Pakistan in attacks blamed on Taliban and al Qaeda-linked networks based in the country's tribal belt since government troops stormed the radical so-called Red Mosque in Islamabad in 2007.

Local tribesmen have set up anti-Taliban militias, sponsored by the government, in many parts of northwest Pakistan.

Author: Marina Joarder (AFPE, DPAE, Reuters)
Editor: Grahame Lucas