Peshawar: At least seven policemen were wounded on Saturday when a Taliban militant commander blew himself up in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, police said.
Irfan Ullah, from the lawless town of Darra Adam Khel, struck when police raided his hideout in Matni, an area in the outskirts of Peshawar, in country`s northwest, senior police official Mohammad Karim Khan said.
"Irfan Ullah blew himself up when police stormed into a hideout to arrest him," Khan said
The police had raided several suspected hideouts of Taliban militants in Matni on a tip-off when the suicide bombing took place, he added.
"Two of the wounded policemen were in critical condition," Khan said.
Pakistani troops launched an air and ground offensive against Taliban militants in Darra Adam Khel two years ago after they occupied a key tunnel linking Peshawar with northwestern town of Kohat.
More than 2,900 people have been killed in Pakistan since July 2007 in attacks by militants who oppose Islamabad`s alliance with the United States in the eight-year war against the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Washington has praised Pakistan`s action against the Taliban but is urging the country to also crack down on militants who hide out in the lawless northwest and cross the border to attack NATO and US troops in Afghanistan.
The two nations are also at odds over increasing missile strikes by unmanned US aircraft targeting militants in Pakistan`s northwest.
Bureau Report
