A suicide bomber killed an anti-Taliban provincial politician in northwest Pakistan today after walking into the official's house and blowing himself up.
More than a dozen people were wounded in the attack in Swat valley, police said.
The victim, Shamsher Ali, was a member of the Awami National Party, part of a coalition that rules the North West Frontier Province. Police said two of his brothers were wounded in the attack, one critically.
"People were coming to exchange Eid greetings with him when a man came and blew himself up," his relative Farooq Khan said, referring to the Muslim holy festival which ended yesterday.
The army, battling a Taliban insurgency, launched what it said was a successful offensive in Swat in late April that cleared most of the area, but it still faces pockets of resistance.
Pakistan is under growing US pressure to crack down harder on militants in border areas to help it fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, where President Barack Obama is expected to send 30,000 more troops to try to put down an insurgency.
Reuters