Toll rises to 17 in latest Pakistani suicide attack

ISLAMABAD-The death toll from a suicide attack on a Pakistani opposition politician's home rose to 17, police said Tuesday, a day after the bomber struck in the town of Bhakkar, deep in the central province of Punjab.Investigators said they found the head of the bomber, and from its appearance he appeared to come from the nearby militant-infested tribal lands."He was around 30 years-old and looks as if he was ethnic Pashtun from a tribal area. Probably he had links with militants there," Punjab police chief Shaukat Javed said.Violence has soared in Pakistan in the last year, and militancy has spread over most parts of North West Frontier Province and the tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.The security scare hit new heights after the September 20 suicide truck bomb attack that killed 55 people and destroyed the Marriott hotel in Islamabad.British and U.N. diplomats have been ordered to send their families out of Pakistan.The latest attack targeted a parliamentarian from the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.Rashid Akbar Khan Nawani, a member of Pakistan's Shi'ite Muslim minority had spoken out in parliament against a surge in sectarian violence several times recently.Nawani, who had been meeting constituents in the courtyard of his home, was among 22 wounded in the attack, although he was only slightly hurt.

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