By Izaz Mohmand
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed at least 20 people and wounded dozens in an attack outside the office of a senior government official in Pakistan's northwest, government and hospital officials said.
The bomber struck when people were gathered around the office in the Mohmand ethnic Pashtun tribal region on the Afghan border, where security forces have stepped up attacks on Taliban militants in recent weeks.
"The bomber blew himself up outside the office of an assistant political agent, killing himself and wounding dozens others," a government official, Mehraj Khan, told Reuters.
Assistant political agent Rasool Khan said 20 people were killed in the attack and 40 people were wounded. Hospital officials said 80 people were wounded.
The blast also damaged several cars and about 30 shops in a commercial neighbourhood, witnesses said.
Pakistan launched two major offensives in the northwest last year against homegrown Taliban militants who have killed hundreds of people in retaliatory attacks across Pakistan, mostly in the northwest, but also in major cities.
Two suicide bombers killed at least 42 people in an attack on Pakistan's most important Sufi shrine in the eastern city of Lahore last week.
The Pakistani Taliban, allies of the Afghan Taliban, have lost ground in army offensives over the past year.
They were pushed out of the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad, and in October the army began an offensive in the militants' South Waziristan bastion on the Afghan border.
The offensive was extended to Orakzai in March as many of the militants who fled the South Waziristan operation took refuge there and in Mohmand. Hundreds of militants have since been killed in airstrikes in the two regions.
Jet fighters killed about a dozen militants in attacks in Orakzai on Friday, security officials said. There was no independent verification of the casualties as militants often dispute and reject the official figures.
(Writing by Augustine Anthony; Editing by Chris Allbritton and Sugita Katyal)
