A teenaged suicide bomber targeted a police posse in Dera Ismail Khan near the Pakistan Afghanistan border in the North Western Frontier Province on Sunday killing two civilians and five policemen as they investigated an earlier blast, no group has claimed responsibility.
The bombing was the latest in a wave of suicide and other attacks across Pakistan that have left more than 1,500 people dead in the past 18 months.
Many of those attacks have targeted police and security forces.
Bomb investigation sleuths told reporters that fragments of a suicide jacket and an unexploded hand grenade were found at the scene, adding that 10 to 15 kilos (22-33 pounds) of explosives were likely detonated.
President Asif Ali Zardari condemned what he called a "cowardly act of terrorism" and expressed his condolences to the families of those killed, in a statement carried by the Associated Press of Pakistan news agency.
Dera Ismail Khan is on the edge of Pakistan's lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, where hundreds of extremists fled after the Taliban regime was ousted from power in Kabul in a US-led invasion in late 2001.
The army is battling in the tribal zones to flush out Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants, who Washington and Kabul say are using Pakistan as a staging area for cross-border attacks against foreign forces operating in Afghanistan.
Pakistani security forces working to clear the key northwest highway used by vehicles carrying supplies to foreign troops in Afghanistan on Sunday seized a truck packed with 1,000 kilos (2,200 pounds) of explosives, an official said.
The senior security official told AFP that the truck bomb could have been used to cause "many deaths".
Dera Ismail Khan is not far from South Waziristan, where eight militants were killed last week in two suspected US missile strikes.
The troubled town has also in the past been the scene of sectarian violence between Pakistan's majority Sunnis and minority Shiites.
(Agencies)
The bombing was the latest in a wave of suicide and other attacks across Pakistan that have left more than 1,500 people dead in the past 18 months.
Many of those attacks have targeted police and security forces.
Bomb investigation sleuths told reporters that fragments of a suicide jacket and an unexploded hand grenade were found at the scene, adding that 10 to 15 kilos (22-33 pounds) of explosives were likely detonated.
President Asif Ali Zardari condemned what he called a "cowardly act of terrorism" and expressed his condolences to the families of those killed, in a statement carried by the Associated Press of Pakistan news agency.
Dera Ismail Khan is on the edge of Pakistan's lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, where hundreds of extremists fled after the Taliban regime was ousted from power in Kabul in a US-led invasion in late 2001.
The army is battling in the tribal zones to flush out Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants, who Washington and Kabul say are using Pakistan as a staging area for cross-border attacks against foreign forces operating in Afghanistan.
Pakistani security forces working to clear the key northwest highway used by vehicles carrying supplies to foreign troops in Afghanistan on Sunday seized a truck packed with 1,000 kilos (2,200 pounds) of explosives, an official said.
The senior security official told AFP that the truck bomb could have been used to cause "many deaths".
Dera Ismail Khan is not far from South Waziristan, where eight militants were killed last week in two suspected US missile strikes.
The troubled town has also in the past been the scene of sectarian violence between Pakistan's majority Sunnis and minority Shiites.
(Agencies)
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