PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Police officers foiled a plan to assassinate a regional education minister in northwest Pakistan when they took on four militants in a gunbattle Monday that ended with a teenage suicide bomber blowing himself up, police said.
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 fight occurred.
"We have collected the body parts of the young suicide attacker, and these willbe sent for identification purposes," said Khan. No other deaths were reported.
Pakistan's northwest, near the border with Afghanistan, continues to see near-daily violence with attacks by Islamist extremists on security forces and civilians.
Also on Monday, one Pakistani soldier was killed and three were wounded when Taliban militants attacked an army checkpoint in Mamuser district of the South Waziristan tribal region, said an intelligence officer who spoke on condition of anonymity citing policy.
Azam Tariq, a purported Taliban spokesman, said more than 40 soldiers were either killed or wounded in attacks on two checkpoints in the area. His claim could not be independently verified as the region is off limits to journalists.
Tariq called the AP from an undisclosed location, pledging the Taliban were ready for any military offensive launched in South Waziristan. "We are fully prepared to teach a lesson to the army. ... The latest attacks were ample proof of our readiness to counter them."
Meanwhile, a military statement said security forces Monday arrested a militant accused of masterminding suicide bombings in the Swat Valley. Abu Faraj's arrest was being billed as a major success in the last leg of the army offensive in the scenic valley.
Colonel Akhtar Abbas told The Associated Press that Faraj's real name is Nasim Shah and he was a close aide of Swat Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah.
Information for this article was contributed from Islamabad by Asif Shahzad, Zarar Khan and Robert Kennedy of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 09/22/2009