Bomb kills five in northwest Pakistan

Pakistani volunteers and rescue workers remove a lifeless body from the site after a bomb explosion in Peshawar, Pakistan, Sunday, May 11, 2014. A police official in Pakistan says a bomb blast targeting refugees registering with the government has killed several people in northwestern city of Peshawar. Faisal Mukhtar says the bombing Sunday on a soccer field also wounded many people. He says it happened as officials registered refugees from the nearby Khyber tribal region. (AP)

KHAR, Pakistan: A roadside bomb exploded Sunday killing a local government official and four policemen in Pakistan’s restive northwestern tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said.
The blast took place in the town of Mamoond, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Khar, the main town of Bajaur, one of the country’s seven semi-autonomous tribal districts, where the army has been battling Taliban militants.
“A local government officer and four tribal police were killed and another was wounded when an improvised explosive device planted on a roadside exploded when their vehicle passed,” senior local government official Anwarul Haq told AFP.
Local security officials confirmed the attack and casualties.
Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the bomb explosion but in the past Taliban militants have carried out several suicide bombings and other attacks in the district.
Violence in Pakistan has declined in recent years following a series of military offensives against insurgents along the northwestern border.
But militant groups are still able to carry out bloody attacks, particularly in the northwest.