Police officers foiled a plan to assassinate a regional Education Minister in northwestern Pakistan when they took on four militants in a gunbattle on Monday that ended with a teenage suicide bomber blowing himself up, police said.
An informant tipped off officers that insurgents had gathered in a government high school in North West Frontier Province after midnight and were planning to kill provincial Education Minister Sardar Hussain Babak and attack government installations and security forces, said police officer Noor Jamal Khan.
Police confronted the militants and a firefight ensued. A loud explosion rocked the building and three of the men escaped, including one who was wounded, Mr. Khan told The Associated Press from Tatalai district, where the incident occurred.
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“We have collected the body parts of the young suicide attacker and these will be sent for identification purposes,” he said. No other deaths were reported.
Pakistan’s northwest, near the border with Afghanistan, continues to see near-daily violence with attacks by Islamist extremists on security forces and civilians.
On Monday, one Pakistani soldier was killed and three were wounded when Taliban militants attacked an army checkpoint in Mamuser district of the South Waziristan tribal region, said an intelligence officer who spoke on condition of anonymity citing policy.
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