A suicide bomber targeted a security checkpoint in Pakistan's Peshawar on Thursday, killing four people in the second such attack in as many days in the flashpoint northwestern city.
Attacks are escalating in the city of 2.5 million people on the edge of Pakistan’s tribal belt on the Afghan border, an area Washington brands the most dangerous place on Earth and the chief sanctuary of Al-Qaeda.
"The bomber was on foot and detonated explosives strapped to his body during a body-search at the check post," Karim Khan, senior police officer at the scene, told Reuters.
The check post is on the city’s Mall Road, near offices of the national airline and some media companies. It is also close to a Christian girls’ school and the city’s military district.
A policeman and passerby were killed and 14 people wounded, said city official Sahibzada Anis. He said the bomber had apparently been heading towards a market.
Administration officials said more than 10 people were wounded and witnesses said they saw injured people lying bloodied on the ground under a thick cloud of smoke that spewed into the sky after the blast.
Bashir Ahmed Bilour, a cabinet minister in the North West Frontier Province government, confirmed the death toll from the suicide attack.
"We will never bow down to them, we will continue our fight till this curse is completely eliminated," he told reporters.
Targeting the media
The Taliban have stepped up strikes this year to avenge Pakistan military operations to eradicate their northwest strongholds and Thursday’s attack came two days after a teenage suicide bomber attacked a press club in Peshawar.
It was an unprecedented assault on the media in Pakistan, killing three people and forcing the government to promise drastically improved security measures for the local press — which have received threats from the Taliban.
Peshawar’s is on the frontline of Pakistan’s two and a half year campaign of suicide and bomb attacks waged by Islamist militants who have carved out havens in the northwest and who oppose Islamabad’s alliance with the United States.
On December 7, a suicide bomber struck outside a court in Peshawar, killing 11 people and on October 28, a huge car bombing ripped through a Peshawar market killing 125 people in the worst attack in Pakistan in two years.
Militant attacks have killed more than 2,700 people since July 2007 and Washington is pressuring Pakistan to do more to crack down on Qaeda and stop insurgents crossing the border to attack Western troops in Afghanistan.