By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : At least 15 people were killed and more than 20 injured Monday when a burqa clad suicide bomber blew himself up in suburbs of Bannu in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, official sources said.
The dead also included three policemen who were passing by the Abshar area, some six kilometres from Bannu city, when the bomb was detonated.
Bannu is considered stronghold of the ruling Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) in the province. It also borders the tribal belt and many Taliban guerrillas are believed to be present in this area.
The bomb was exploded in the morning hours in a crowded place where people there were waiting for buses to go to work.
In the last two months this is the 11th attack in NWFP, mostly targeted at military and paramilitary personnel in NWFP and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), adjoining Afghanistan.
The city police chief Dar Ali Khattak told reporters the attacker’s body had been recovered and Police were trying to establish his identity. He said it was difficult to suggest the motive of the suicide attacker.
The security situation in northwest Pakistan has worsened after local militants in North Waziristan scrapped a peace deal with the government in mid-July.