Roadside bombs kill 6 in Pakistan's northwest (8:59 a.m.)

PARACHINAR -- Roadside bombs that struck two vehicles in Pakistan's volatile northwest Sunday have killed a former irrigation minister and three others in one of the attacks and two anti-Taliban tribal elders in the other.

Hours earlier, a roadside bomb struck a vehicle in the Hangu district of North West Frontier Province, killing

Former Irrigation Minister Ghaniur Rehman, his two guards and his driver were killed when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle in the Hangu district of North West Frontier Province, said district police chief Abdur Rasheed. Two police officers accompanying the former minister were wounded in the attack.

The attack came after a roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying anti-Taliban elders in the Bajur tribal area, killing two and critically wounding four others, said local official Naseeb Shah.

The six men were working to set up an anti-Taliban militia in Bajur, a militant stronghold near the Afghan border, said Shah.

The men were on their way to meet local officials in the main town of Khar when the remote-controlled device detonated, Shah said. The blast occurred near Kassai, about 17 miles (28 kilometers) northeast of Khar, he said.

The attacks were the latest targeting public officials and private citizens who are combatting the growing Taliban-led insurgency, part of a wave of retaliatory violence that has killed more than 600 people in the past two-and-a-half months. (AP)