At least ten people were killed and 13 wounded in a suicide attack in Pakistan's Swat valley Saturday, police said.

The blast, at a security checkpoint in north –west of the country, comes a day after a series of bombings brought chaos and bloodshed to the city of Lahore.

The bomber, on Saturday, blew himself up in Saidu Sharif, on the southern outskirts of Mingora, the main town of Swat, where the military said several months ago it had quelled a Taliban uprising.

"A total of ten people have been killed and 37 were wounded. It was a suicide attack," senior police official Qazi Jamil told AFP by telephone. Three security personnel and a nine year old child were also among the dead.
"The suicide bomber was on foot. He was trying to enter the building and blew himself up after being stopped by police," he said.

A spokesman for the army-run Swat media center also confirmed the death toll and told AFP by telephone that two policemen and one soldier were killed.
The area was cordoned off by security forces while all shops and markets were immediately closed, residents said.
"Some 20 vehicles were also damaged in this blast. The bomber was carrying 15 kilograms of explosive," Jamil added.

On Friday, twin suicide attacks seconds apart targeted the Pakistani military, killing 57 people in the crowded R A Bazaar area of Lahore.
Five small bombs later exploded in the cultural capital, causing no casualties but alarming residents.
 
The army says the area of Swat is now safe and most of the two million people who fled their homes have returned, but sporadic outbreaks of violence continue, while some fear the Swat Taliban are regrouping elsewhere in the northwest.
A suicide car bomber hit a military convoy last month in the center of Mingora, killing nine people.

Pakistan's military is now engaged in fighting in the northwest tribal belt along the Afghan border, where the core Taliban leadership and Al-Qaeda-linked militants are holed up in the rugged mountain terrain.


Agencies

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