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'Three killed' in Pakistan blast | 'Three killed' in Pakistan blast |
(about 4 hours later) | |
At least three people have been killed and seven injured in a suicide bombing in north-west Pakistan, police say. | |
Police say the bomber killed himself, a policeman and a civilian after he was stopped at a checkpoint in Dera Ismail Khan, a town near the Afghan border. | |
The blast is Pakistan's third since Friday and comes amid tight security for Shia Muslim ceremonies this week. | |
Elsewhere in the north-west, at least 11 people were hurt when a rocket was fired at a mosque in the town of Bannu. | |
The rocket landed near the building as Shia worshippers were leaving after prayers. | |
In the town of Kohat about 60km (35 miles) south of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) capital, Peshawar, police said they had recovered explosives from under the stairs in a Shia mosque. | |
Blasts | Blasts |
The blast in Dera Ismail Khan damaged nearby buildings and shattered windows. | |
Security officials say the suicide bomber was a teenager who blew himself up when police tried to search him at a road block. | |
"The attacker refused to be checked and detonated his explosives," Aslam Khattak, a senior police official in Dera Ismail Khan, told Reuters news agency. | |
Minority Shia Muslims were due to hold a procession nearby. | |
Pakistan's security forces are on alert for sectarian violence during the holy month of Muharram. | |
The festival of Ashura is on Tuesday, when Shias mark the death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Imam Hussein. | The festival of Ashura is on Tuesday, when Shias mark the death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Imam Hussein. |
On Saturday, a suspected suicide bomber killed at least 13 people, two of them senior police officials, near a Shia gathering in the city of Peshawar. | |
A day earlier, police said a suicide bomber had killed himself and a security guard at a top hotel in Islamabad. There was no apparent sectarian motive. | A day earlier, police said a suicide bomber had killed himself and a security guard at a top hotel in Islamabad. There was no apparent sectarian motive. |
Tensions high | |
Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said on Monday that the authorities were still trying to establish who was behind the blasts. | Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said on Monday that the authorities were still trying to establish who was behind the blasts. |
The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says tensions are also high because of militant threats to take revenge for recent army operations in the tribal areas. | |
It is not clear who is behind the attacks, or whether they are linked. | |
But observers say many people in the government and outside are tempted to link the attacks to recent air strikes by Pakistani and Nato troops against pro-Taleban militants in the troubled Waziristan region. |