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Suicide blast kills seven in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 26 (UPI) -- A suicide attack near a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial leader's home in the town of Pabbi Monday killed seven people and injured 20, Pakistani officials said.

CNN reported hospital official Sehrab Khan said on Pakistani television that seven people died and 20 were injured.

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Three police officers were among the dead, a police chief said.

Officials indicated the provincial leader, Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, was not home when the bomber detonated the explosives, the English-language Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported.

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik was in Pabbi just before the bomb exploded, paying respects to Hussain's family for the loss of their son, Mian Rashid, 28, who was killed Saturday.

"When the attack took place, he (the suicide bomber) was alone but we understand that two of his accomplices are on the loose," Police Chief Nowshera Liaquat Ali told Dawn. "Several guests visiting Mian Iftikhar were present inside the nearby mosque at the time of the attack and they could have been the intended targets of the bombers."

Several nearby buildings were destroyed by the blast, officials said.

CNN said the Taliban claimed responsibility for the assassination of Hussain. In a phone call to the U.S. news network, Taliban spokesman Ihsan Ullah Ihsan said Hussain's father also was on the Muslim extremist group's hit list.

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