© Ahmad Sidique/Xinhua Press/CorbisA man mourns after a suicide attack killed four women in Peshawar, Pakistan.
A suicide bomber has blown himself up in the house of a pro-government tribal elder in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing four women, police say.
The attacker ran into the home of Jan Mohammad Afridi in the city's Chamkani area, chased by police.
Police surrounded the house and exchanged gunfire with the bomber. It was unclear whether the bomber detonated his explosives or if they were set off by police gunfire.
Half of Afridi's house was destroyed in the blast, and the bodies of four women were recovered from the rubble. Five others in the house, including a woman and two children, were wounded.
Afridi is a prominent member of the local peace committee, which opposes militants in the area.
Elsewhere in the country's volatile north-west on Monday, a roadside bomb struck a polio vaccination team in the village of Khugekhel in the Khyber tribal region, near the Afghan border, wounding three security troops who were escorting them. The polio workers were unhurt.
In the country's south-western Baluchistan province, separatists blew up three gas pipelines in the central Rahim Yar Khan district, cutting supplies to millions of households overnight, according to Sui Northern Gas.
The separatist group the Baluch Republican Army claimed responsibility for the attack. Its spokesman, Sarbaz Baluch, said the attack late on Sunday was in response to the discovery earlier of dead bodies of Baluch activists. Baluch separatists have been waging a low-level insurgency for years against the Pakistani government.
BRA kills four women.
Excuse the irreverence, I had to say it.
Peace to them and sympathy for their loved ones.