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Pakistan soldier killed in suicide attack

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: A suicide attack near an army camp in Punjab province killed one soldier on Thursday while Pakistan's tribal regions in the north-west remained in the grip of serious unrest.

At least one soldier was killed in the suicide attack in Kharian, a town 135 km from here.

Army base targeted

The bomber was also killed, while eight soldiers were wounded. Two of them were reported to be in critical condition. The suicide bomber attacked the soldiers as they were repairing a vehicle outside an army base. This is the eighth suicide attack in Pakistan since January, and the second directly targeting the military in recent months. In November 2006, a suicide bomber blew himself up at Dargai in the North-West Frontier Province, killing 40 soldiers in apparent retaliation for a military air-strike in the Bajaur tribal agency.

In South Waziristan, another tribal agency in FATA, local tribesmen clashed with Uzbek militants once again, ending a lull in the fighting since last Friday.

The local tribesmen, many of whom are pro-Taliban militants, have pledged to drive out the foreign militants who have taken refuge in the area. They have apparently rejected a ceasefire brokered by tribal elders and politicians of Jamaat-e-ulema Islami, part of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal coalition.

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