The FINANCIAL — Police in Pakistan's northwest say they foiled an assassination plot that targeted a provincial minister on September 21. A plan to assassinate the education minister in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province was foiled by officers who engaged four militants in a gunbattle that ended with a teenage suicide bomber blowing himself up.
According to AP, an informant tipped off officers that insurgents had gathered in a government high school in North West Frontier Province after midnight and were planning to kill provincial Education Minister Sardar Hussain Babak and attack government installations and security forces, police officer Noor Jamal Khan said.
Police confronted the militants and a firefight ensued. A loud explosion rocked the building and three of the men escaped, including one who was wounded, Khan told The Associated Press from Tatalai district where the incident occurred, the same source reported. "We have collected the body parts of the young suicide attacker and these will be sent for identification purposes," said Khan. No other deaths were reported.
The minister, Sardar Hussain Babak, was hosting family members at his home about 2 km (1.2 miles) away for the Eid-ul-Fitr holidays, as CNN gives information. When police could not lure the bomber out of the school, officers used rocket launchers to fire at the building, Khan said.
The attack is the latest in a string of violent events, Press Association reported. On Friday, a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden vehicle into a hotel in the north-western town of Kohat, killing more than 30 people and wounding dozens of others.
The latest violence comes as Pakistani forces continue to clear the Swat Valley and surrounding areas to the southeast of Taliban fighters and their al-Qaida allies, according to AP. The military said Sunday that security forces killed eight militants in search operations throughout Swat since Saturday. Twenty-three insurgents also were apprehended and another 22 surrendered. One of the militants killed was a Taliban commander identified as Chamtu Khan, it said in a statement.
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