At least 20 killed in suicide attack on police station in Pakistan

At least 20 people were killed and 50 wounded Friday in a suicide bombing by a teenager in a police checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan, a stronghold of rebels allied with Al Qaeda, according to new official figures. The attack against the police came in Jar, the main town of Bajaur tribal district near the Afghan border, considered a Taliban stronghold. "Twenty people, including five policemen, were killed and 46 others were injured. Some shops and restaurants nearby are destroyed," Islam told AFP Zeb, head of district administration. The bomber, aged between 14 and 16, according to officials of the intelligence services came to the checkpoint on foot and detonated his explosives around his waist. It is the third bomb attack in the last two days in Bajaur and the bloodiest attack in Pakistan committed since 2 March, when 22 died in an attack on a mosque in Khyber. The district of Bajaur is a stronghold of the Taliban Movement of Pakistan (TTP), a leading Pakistani Islamist insurgent group. The attack was claimed by the TTP, which said was aimed at the local chief of tribal police and his deputy, commissioned by the Government to pursue rebels. The violent attack also occurs at a time when the country is on alert due to the first anniversary of the death of Osama Bin Laden, making fear a wave of reprisals. One day before the United States released documents attributed to Osama Bin Laden, showing that he complained of some practices of Pakistani Taliban allies, particularly suicide bombings that kill civilians, and wrote so to the TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud. Another responsibility of local government, Tariq Khan said the bomber, on foot, fired the trigger of his coat full of explosives as he approached the police checkpoint. The TTP is primarily responsible for a wave of more than 530 attacks - mostly suicide - which caused 5,000 deaths in Pakistan last five years.