Pakistan suicide blast kills anti-Taliban politician


Taliban claims responsibility for attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in which three guards and two passers-by also died


An anti-Taliban politician and five other people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in north-west Pakistan.


Fateh Khan, the head of a government-allied regional militia and a leader of the secular Awami National party (ANP), died along with three guards and two passers-by in the blast near a petrol station in Buner, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.


Police said the bomber triggered a device near a vehicle Khan was in. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack.


The ANP rules the coalition government in the province and has angered the Taliban by supporting several military offensives in tribal districts.


Buner is believed to be a hiding place for the Pakistani Taliban. It is located near the Swat valley, where the 15-year-old education activist Malala Yousafzai was shot and wounded last month for criticising the Taliban's behaviour after it seized the region in 2008.


Malala is recovering in the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham after being flown to the UK for treatment.


A military offensive broke the Taliban's control over the area in 2009 but attacks have continued.






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