Islamabad, Dec 18 (DPA) A suicide car bomber struck a police compound in Pakistan’s northwestern district of Lower Dir Friday, killing at least 12 people, including three policemen, officials said.
About 30 people were wounded in the blast, which took place near the main gate of the Police Lines Headquarters in the district’s main town of Timergara.

“The suicide attacker detonated his explosives-laden vehicle when dozens of people were leaving a nearby mosque after offering Friday prayers,” police chief Mumtaz Zarin Khan said.

A second man was reported seen sitting next to the bomber driving the vehicle, Khan said.

Hospital officials feared the death toll might increase as eight of the injured were in a critical condition.

“Three of the dead are policemen,” said Wakil Ahmed, a senior doctor at a state-run hospital.

The explosion damaged the police building that housed offices and residential quarters. Television footage showed several burning vehicles at the blast site.

The bombing was the latest in a string of deadly attacks carried out by Islamist insurgents in recent weeks to avenge military operations against Taliban militants in Pakistan’s troubled northwestern region.

Lower Dir, in the North-West Frontier Province, is located adjacent to the restive Swat Valley, which was largely cleared of rebels after an intense offensive this spring.

Government forces shifted their focus to the Taliban heartland of Waziristan in mid-October and are now pushing into nearby tribal districts, where the rebels are believed to be hiding.

Fourteen rebels were killed and 17 injured when air force jets pounded their hideouts in the Orkazai tribal district, said intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

It is believed that most of the estimated 10,000 militants who fled the military operation in South Waziristan took refuge in Orakzai, a new hotbed of insurgents.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said military action would be taken wherever the terrorists take refuge.