Suicide bomber kills one in Pakistan

A suicide bomber targeted Pakistani volunteers in a pro-government militia on Thursday, killing one person and wounding at least three others in an area troubled by Taliban violence, police said.

The bomber was spotted by members of the lashkar and blew himself up after they chased and surrounded him in a market area of Dir town in the northwestern district of Upper Dir near the Afghan border.

"One person was killed. He was the son of local lashkar chief Mutabar Khan and six people were wounded," police official Mohammad Ayub told AFP.

Another police official, Riaz Mehsud, confirmed the attack but said three people were wounded, not six.

Taliban and other Islamist insurgents routinely target members of tribal militias known as lashkars, which support government security forces in fending off militant threat across northwest Pakistan.

According to an AFP tally, Islamist bombers and gunmen have killed more than 4,800 people across Pakistan since July 2007.

Pakistani troops in 2009 launched a major offensive in Lower Dir and the neighbouring districts of Swat and Buner to crush a Taliban insurgency and to reassert government control.

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