Pakistani warlord wounded in suicide bomb attack

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Pakistani warlord Mullah Nazir was at the receiving end of a suicide bomb attack that killed at least three other people on Thursday, security officials said.
Nazir is the main warlord in South Waziristan, part of Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt considered a base for Al-Qaeda and other Islamist militants, and an elder in the Wazir tribe.
A suicide bomber on a motorcycle rammed Nazir’s vehicle in the market of Wana, the main town of South Waziristan, the officials said.
After the bomb detonated, gunfire broke out and militants sealed off the market, Pakistani security officials told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Two people were killed and at least five others were wounded, including Nazir, the officials said, though accounts differed over the gravity of the warlord’s injuries.
“The bomber was a boy aged 13 or 14. Five to seven people were wounded, including Mullah Nazir. His condition is said to be not serious,” one of the officials said.
But another official in Wana said Nazir was “seriously wounded” in the attack.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Nazir is understood to oppose the presence of Uzbek and other foreign fighters in the region.
Nazir and his ally in North Waziristan, militant commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, do not attack Pakistani troops but oppose the presence of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
An intelligence official in the neighboring district of Tank said there had been a suicide attack and that firing subsequently broke out in the main market of Wana.
“The bazaar is closed now. We’re trying to get more information,” he said.
Sources in Wana said Nazir survived murder attempts in the past and had developed enmity with Uzbek fighters whom he had expelled from South Waziristan several years ago.