Pakistan - Bombings, militant attacks in FATA, Quetta: Six dead

Two bombings and a militant attack on a checkpoint in Pakistan killed six people Tuesday, officials said.

The deadliest attack struck the security checkpoint in the northwestern Orakzai tribal region, killing three paramilitary soldiers, government official Naeem Khan said.

He said other soldiers at the checkpoint chased and killed several militants.

In the town of Salarzai in the northwestern Bajur tribal area, a roadside bomb killed two police officers who were preparing to supervise a polio vaccine campaign that’s to start Wednesday, government administrator Sohail Khan said. Pakistani militants oppose the campaign, alleging that western governments would use it to spy on insurgents after the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Another bomb planted along a road in southwestern Quetta city exploded when a local court judge passed by, killing a boy and wounding 25, police officer Abdur Razzaq Cheema said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for any of the attacks, which come amid a military push against insurgents in the country’s tribal regions. Suspicion likely will fall on the Pakistani Taliban, who want to enforce their own harsh brand of Islamic system in the country.