A suicide bomber in northwest Pakistan yesterday killed the head of a local peace committee, three of his guards and two others, police said.

Suicide and bomb attacks blamed on Islamist insurgents have killed more than 5,200 people since July 2007

The bomber struck as Fateh Khan, whose committee opposes Islamist militants, left a petrol station in the city of Buner 150 kilometres northeast of Peshawar, the capital of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

“The suicide bomber blew himself up in front of Fateh Khan’s vehicle. Three guards boarding the vehicle and two passersby were also killed in the attack,” Jehanzeb Khan, the district police chief, told AFP adding that up to five people had also been injured.

Another senior police official confirmed the death toll.

“We can confirm the death of six people from the suicide attack in the Buner district including the head of a local peace committee Fateh Khan,” Akhter Hayat Khan, a senior police official in Malakand division, told AFP.

The police officials said Khan was actively opposed to Islamic militants and played a leading role in forcing them out of the region in 2009. He was also an active district level political leader.

Suicide and bomb attacks blamed on Islamist insurgents have killed more than 5,200 people since July 2007 across nuclear-armed Pakistan.

Buner neighbours Pakistan’s picturesque Swat valley, which fell to Taliban militants in 2009.