Suicide blast hits Pakistan airforce bus, 6 dead

MULTAN, Pakistan, Nov 1 (Reuters) At least six people were killed and 40 were wounded in a suicide blast on a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) bus near the central city of Sargodha today, the military said, the second such attack this week.

The attacker was riding a motorbike and rammed into the bus as it was taking personnel to the air base in Sargodha in the central province of Punjab.

''According to initial reports, six people were killed and 40 wounded,'' said Air Commodore Sarfraz Ahmed Khan, a Pakistan Air Force spokesman.

Pakistan has seen a surge in violence by militants linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda since the army stormed a radical mosque in the capital, Islamabad, in July.

In a separate attack on Tuesday, seven people, including the bomber, were killed less than a kilometre from the army residence of President General Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, which is next to Islamabad.

Scores of people have been killed in a suicide attack and fighting between the security forces and militants in Swat valley in the North West Frontier Province in recent days.

A suicide bomb attack killed 139 people at a rally in the city of Karachi on October 19 to mark the return of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto after eight years of self-imposed exile.

REUTERS PD AS1029