DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan, Jan 26 (Reuters) - A bomb planted on a bicycle exploded near a women's hostel in the northwestern Pakistani town of Dera Ismail Khan on Monday, killing five people and wounding several, police said.
Pakistan is struggling to stem growing insurgency by al Qaeda and Taliban militants, particularly in the northwest near the Afghan border.
"It was a cycle bomb. Five people died on the spot while the wounded were shifted to hospitals," police officer Bashir Khan said by telephone from the scene.
Khan declined to say if the women's hostel was the target. A hospital and a press club are also in the vicinity.
Dera Ismail Khan is 270 km (170 miles) southwest of the capital, Islamabad, in North West Frontier Province.
It is near the border with the South Waziristan ethnic Pashtun tribal region, a known sanctuary for al Qaeda and Taliban militants on the Afghan border.
Militants have unleashed a wave of suicide and bomb attacks and assassinations in response to military operations against them in the northwest.
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