Suicide Bomber Kills Policeman, Wounds 6 in Northwest Pakistan

A suicide bomber on Saturday struck a police patrol in a town in northwestern Pakistan, killing a policeman and wounding six others, police said.

The bombing took place at a market in Katalang, 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Peshawar, the capital of restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which borders Afghanistan.

"A policeman was killed and two other policemen were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up close to a police patrol car," senior police official Shafi Ullah told Agence France Presse.

Four civilians were also wounded in the suicide bombing, Ullah said.

After the bombing police chased an alleged accomplice and killed him in a shoot out, the official said.

Two other police officials confirmed the account and casualties.

Nobody immediately claimed responsibility, they said, but Taliban militants in the past have carried out several bombings in the region.

Separately, a bomb blast damaged a non-governmental organization office in Peshawar early Saturday but caused no casualties, police said.

The bomb exploded outside the office of Sawera, an NGO working for women rights and voters' education, at 4:00 am (2300 GMT Friday) in the upmarket area of Hayatabad, senior police official Faisal Murad told AFP.

A official at Sawera said the organization had not received any specific threat but militants have attacked NGOs and aid workers in the past.

Pakistan says more than 35,000 people have been killed as a result of terrorism in the country since the 9/11 attacks on the United States.