The attacker, who was driving a three-wheeled motorized rickshaw, detonated the explosives at a roadblock manned by soldiers and police in the town of Saidu Sharif in the Swat Valley, police official Qazi Farooq said.
Lal Noor, a doctor at a local hospital, said 10 people died in the attack - one soldier, one policeman and eight civilians - and another 52 were wounded.
The Pakistani military launched a major offensive in Swat early last year after the collapse of peace talks with local Taleban officials - who at the time controlled much of the valley.
The military took back the Swat Valley by mid-2009, but sporadic violence has continued.
No one claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack, but suspicion quickly fell on the Islamist militants, who have stepped up attacks against security forces in recent days.
The Swat attack came one day after two suicide bombers killed 45 people in near-simultaneous blasts in the eastern city of Lahore.
