Government official among five killed in blast

A roadside bomb blew up a vehicle, killing five people, including a regional government official, in troubled north-western Pakistan today, a security official said.

Two policemen, a local journalist and the driver also were killed near the village of Salazai, about nine miles north of Khar, the main town in the Bajur tribal region.

An area security official, Mamoor Khan, said the car, carrying official Wasal Khan, was going to a village to demolish the house of a militant accused of killing a doctor this year.

The journalist, who worked for a local newspaper, was accompanying them.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said officers were investigating the attack.

Ghani's car was blown up as he headed to Salarzai to convince villagers to immunise their children against polio.

Many villagers in Pakistani tribal areas think the immunisation campaign was a plot to make them infertile.