KOHAT, Pakistan (Reuters) - Suspected Islamist militants set off a roadside bomb as a Pakistani military truck was passing on Tuesday, wounding seven people in the third bomb attack in the country in two days.
Pakistan was hit by a wave of bomb attacks last year andearly this year, many of them by suicide bombers, but violencefell off sharply after a February election won by partiescalling for talks to end Islamist militant violence.
Last Wednesday, 18 people were killed when missilessuspected to have been fired by a U.S. drone struck a house inthe Bajaur region on the Afghan border where militants havebeen known to operate.
Since then, there have been three bomb blasts including asuicide attack on Sunday outside a military training centre inthe northwestern town of Mardan that killed 13.
Tuesday's blast was near a military headquarters in thenorthwestern town of Kohat.
"The bomb was planted on a bicycle and it wounded sevenpeople including four paramilitary men," said police officialIbrahimullah at the site.
There was no claim of responsibility for Tuesday's blast,or one on Monday evening that killed three outside a mosque inBajaur. But Pakistan Taliban militants claimed responsibilityfor the suicide attack in Mardan on Sunday.
Pakistan's new government, sworn in at the end of March,has begun a policy of engagement, negotiating through triballeaders to persuade militants to stop their attacks.
But that has raised concern among Pakistan's allies withtroops in neighbouring Afghanistan who fear any peace pact onthe Pakistani side of the border will enable militants to focustheir attention on attacks in Afghanistan.
NATO's commander in Afghanistan, General Dan McNeill, saidthis week he was sending reinforcements to the border withPakistan in expectation that a peace deal on the Pakistani sidewould see a spike of violence on the Afghan side.
