Click to play videoNew Delhi: Nine people were killed and 35 others were wounded in a suicide attack in Northwest Pakistan on Saturday when a suicide bomber slammed an explosives-laden car into a busy bus station.
The explosion went off midmorning in Parachinar in North West Frontier Province, causing damage to the bus station and neighbouring shops. Police officials say the car was rammed into another vehicle next to a bus packed with passengers. The area has now been cordoned off for security reasons.
"We dispersed the people and sent all the injured people to hospital, and also we sent the dead bodies to the hospital as well. Now we have covered the area for security measurements," local paramilitary chief, Mohammad Kaseer said.
A doctor at the Parachinar Hospital, about 250 kilometres (150 miles) south of the provincial capital of Peshawar, said they received five bodies after the blast, and that four of the injured later died.
At least two other victims were still in a critical condition, he said.
Meanwhile in the nearby tribal region of North Waziristan, pro-Taliban militants attacked a military checkpoint in remote Oblanki, an army spokesman said.
Ten militants and four troops were killed before the attackers fled back into the region's mountains, pursued by helicopter gunships, the spokesman said. Five other soldiers were wounded.
The security situation in Pakistan, especially in the tribal zone bordering Afghanistan, has been deteriorating for weeks, and almost daily attacks have killed more than 350 people.
Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its "war on terror", and it has deployed about 90-thousand soldiers in its tribal regions since the 11 September 2001 attacks to flush out remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaida who are believed to be hiding there.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is under increasing pressure from Washington to crack down in the tribal region.
The surge in violence has followed tribal leaders' withdrawal from a 2006 peace deal with the government, and amid widespread anger at an army raid of Islamabad's radical Red Mosque last month that left at least 102 people dead.
Pakistan used to be a main supporter of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime, but Musharraf switched sides after the attacks on the United States.
Musharraf has since said that his fight against terrorism would continue until it is reasonably assured that militancy and extremism have been defeated.
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