Six die in Pakistan suicide blast (Second Lead)

ISLAMABAD - At least six people were killed and 20 injured Tuesday when a suicide attacker targeted a police van in Bannu district in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The police mobile van was on patrolling duty around 8.45 a.m. when the suicide bomber approached the vehicle and blew himself up.

The dead include a six-month-old baby whose mother was severely injured. Police constable Safeerullah died in the terror strike.

The Bannu deputy inspector general (DIG) police, Iftikhar Khan confirmed the suicide attack.

We had intensified security around sensitive buildings but the terrorists are desperate now,” Khan said, adding that such incidents have considerably decreased during the last three months.

All the injured have been shifted to the district headquarter hospital at Bannu.

Bannu is 140 km south-west of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and adjacent to the mountainous tribal region where Taliban and Al Qaeda militants have their bases.