Security forces have carried out several operations in Bajaur in an attempt to defeat Pakistani Taliban fighters holed up in the area. - File Photo

KHAR: A powerful roadside bomb targeting an anti-Taliban militia ripped through a pick-up vehicle in Pakistan’s tribal belt on Thursday killing at least five people, government officials said.

The blast badly damaged the pick-up in a remote village close to the Afghan border, in the northwestern district of Bajaur, where Pakistani troops have been fighting for years to dislodge Taliban militants.

“It was a planted IED (improvised-explosive device) which exploded when the vehicle passed. Five people have been killed and eight others were wounded,”Adalat Khan, a government official in Chamarkand village, told AFP by phone.

“Three of those who died are members of an anti-Taliban militia and one is a 10-year-old boy. The fifth one is the driver.” Irshad Shah, another government official, confirmed the casualties although there were fears that the death toll could rise.

Nearly 4,700 people have been killed across Pakistan in attacks blamed on Taliban and al Qaeda-linked networks based in the country’s tribal belt since government troops stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad in 2007.

Militants oppose the government’s alliance in the US war on al Qaeda and logistical support for the 10-year fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Local tribesmen have set up anti-Taliban militias, sponsored by the government, in many parts of northwest Pakistan.