DarkTimes - 24Hr Global News Blog

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — At least five people were killed and five wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside an army facility in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, the military and police said.

The bomber, who was on a bicycle, detonated his explosives at a checkpost outside an army centre in the garrison city of Nowshera, 130 kilometres (80 miles) west of the capital Islamabad, a military spokesman told AFP.

"Five people have lost their lives, three civilians and two army men," spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said.

Police confirmed the death toll and said five people were wounded in the attack. "Some of the injured are in a critical condition," local police officer Abid Khan told AFP.

He said the checkpost was on a busy thoroughfare.

The attack came just hours before President Pervez Musharraf was due to lift a controversial state of emergency he imposed in November, citing a wave of attacks that have primarily targeted Pakistan's armed forces.

Hundreds have lost their lives in those attacks -- about 450 just since July, after an army raid on a radical, pro-Taliban mosque left about 100 people dead.

Twin suicide bombers killed five soldiers and wounded 22 people in the southwestern city of Quetta on Thursday.