At least seven police officers have been killed in a bomb attack on a checkpoint in Pakistan's Punjab province, officials say.
Malik Tassadaq Hayyat, the district police chief, said suspected fighters shot dead two policemen and blew up a checkpost killing five other officers, in the attack near the town of Mianwali on Saturday.
"Seven of our men have died in the attack that appears to be part of terrorist activity being carried out by militants across the country," Hayat told the Reuters news agency.
He said residents also heard gunfire before the explosion that knocked down the roadside checkpoint.
Hayyat would not say who could be behind the attack but said it was "an act of terrorism" and officers were still investigating whether the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.
Mianwali is situated on the eastern bank of the Indus river dividing the central province of Punjab from the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the tribal lands, where sectarian tensions have in recent years has become rife by the growing strength of Pakistani Taliban.
Fighters killed
Security forces launched an attack on pro-Taliban groups on Friday near the Khyber tribal region, killing at least 52 people.
Anti-government groups in Khyber have been attacking lorry convoys carrying supplies to Western forces in Afghanistan for the past few months, forcing the US to step up its search for alternative routes.
PHOTO CAPTION
Pakistani police guard oil-trucks carrying NATO supplies crossing the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on January 4, 2009.
Al-Jazeera