Suicide bomber kills two in northwest Pakistan

Tue May 6, 3:04 AM ET

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suspected suicide bomber blew himself near a police checkpost in the northwestern Pakistani town of Bannu on Tuesday, killing two civilians and wounding five people including a soldier, police said.

Pakistan saw a wave of suicide bomb attacks after an army assault on a radical mosque in the capital last July, but there has been a lull since the formation of new government in March that has called for talks to end the violence.

Tuesday's attack, in which a bomber traveling in an auto-rickshaw taxi blew himself up as it stopped near the police post in the town in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), was the second since then.

"Two civilians were killed. One was sitting in the rickshaw while other was a passer-by," said a military official.

The new government, led by the party of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, has begun talks with elders of ethnic Pashtun tribes along the Afghan border with whom militants have taken refuge.

The militants announced a ceasefire last month but later said they were rejecting negotiations mediated by the elders after the government refused to withdraw troops from their stronghold areas.

Also on Tuesday, suspected militants shot dead two policemen outside a bank in the Swat Valley, also in NWFP, in the second killing in two days in the region where the army has been battling militants since last year.

The valley was a main tourist destination until last year when militants rallied to a radical cleric trying to impose Taliban-style rule, and began attacking police.

The army launched an offensive in the valley in November and hundreds of people have been killed since then.

(Additional reporting by Junaid Khan)

(Writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Robert Birsel)