Market attack in NW Pakistan kills at least 8

By Faris Ali

PESHAWAR (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed an anti-Taliban village mayor and seven other people in an attack on the outskirts of Pakistan's volatile city of Peshawar on Sunday, officials said.

The bomber blew himself up as Abdul Malik, mayor of Matni village, was standing in a busy market. Matni is close to the lawless tribal lands where Islamist militants are active.

"So far, eight people have died, including Abdul Malik," Sahibzada Anis, Peshawar's top administration official, told Reuters.

Hospital officials said at least nine people were killed and 36 wounded, several of them seriously.

Islamist militants have unleashed a campaign of bomb and suicide attacks in Pakistan in recent weeks in retaliation for a major offensive launched by security forces in their main bastion, South Waziristan, on the Afghan border.

That assault in South Waziristan's rugged landscape of barren mountains and hidden ravines, now a centre of global Islamist militancy, is being closely watched by the United States and other powers embroiled in Afghanistan.

To support their overall anti-militant drive, Pakistani authorities have encouraged Pashtun tribes to revive traditional militia to counter rising Islamist militancy.