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Bomb kills Pakistani anti-Taliban leader

Saturday, November 3, 2012
Suicide bomber kills at least four in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, including head of a local militia.

 A suicide bomber targeted a vehicle in Pakistan's northwestern Buner District killing the head of a local peace committee and three of his guards, police said.
The bomber struck on Saturday as Fateh Khan, whose committee opposes Taliban militants, left a petrol station in the main city of Buner -- 150 km northeast of Peshawar, the capital of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
"The suicide bomber blown himself up in front of Fateh Khan's vehicle. Three guards boarding the vehicle were also killed in the attack," Jehanzeb Khan, the district police chief told AFP news agency.
He said that up to five people had also been injured in the attack, adding that he was unable to immediately confirm reports of two passersby being killed.
Another senior police official confirmed the death toll.
"We can confirm the death of four people from the suicide attack in the Buner district including the head of local peace committee Fateh Khan," Akhter Hayat Khan, a senior police official in Malakand division told AFP.
It is located near the Swat Valley, where the Taliban last month shot and wounded 14-year-old education activist Malala Yousufzai for criticizing the militant group's behavior when they seized the isolated region in 2008.
Suicide and bomb attacks blamed on Islamist insurgents have killed more than 5,200 people since July 2007 across nuclear-armed Pakistan.