Woman suicide bomber injures 6 people in NW Pakistan

A suspected female teenaged suicide bomber Thursday blew herself near a police checkpoint in the northwestern city of Peshawar and injured six persons, police said. The bomber died at the scene at Gulbahar area of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtonkhwa province. Police officer Imtiaz said that the girl bomber arrived at the scene on foot and detonated bomb stripped to her body. Six persons including two policemen and a child were injured. They were transferred to the city's main hospital. Bomb disposal experts said that half of the suicide jacket exploded while the other part was defused. The girl, thought to be 16 year old, first threw hand grenade at the police checkpoint and later blew herself. Hours earlier a roadside bomb killed at least five policemen and injured 17 others in the same area of Peshawar when a police bus was targeted. The bomb was detonated with the help of remote control at Lahori Gate area of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtonkhwa province, police said. The injured were transferred to the city’s main hospital. Several others were said to be in critical condition, hospital sources said. Police sources said that nearly 25 policemen were on board when the blast occurred. The policemen were being taken to duty places in the city when the bus came under attack, they said. Taliban militants routinely target security forces, police and pro-government politicians in their campaign against the government. There has been a lull in the bomb attacks in Pakistan as the government claimed its efforts had weakened the network of the militants.