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Pakistan provincial minister among 10 dead

A suicide bomber has killed a Pakistani provincial minister and at least nine other people at a building where the minister was holding a meeting.

“Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada has embraced martyrdom,” chief rescue official Mohammad Ashfaq told AFP.

Saeed Illahi, adviser to the province’s chief minister, confirmed Khanzada’s death.

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He had been trapped with several others under the rubble after Sunday’s blast brought down the roof of the building in the village of Shadi Khan in Attock district.

Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Khanzada had been active in crackdowns on sectarian militants and Taliban insurgents in Punjab.

Saeed said there were up to 40 people in the compound when a suicide bomber blew himself up, causing the entire roof slab to fall in one piece, complicating rescue efforts.

An interior ministry helicopter had reached the site to take the wounded to hospital while another helicopter with a civilian rescue team was on its way, Saeed added.

A specially-trained team of army rescuers with modern equipment was working with civilian rescuers and trying to lift and cut sections of the fallen roof to reach the victims, AFP was told.

A police spokeswoman said two police officers were among the eight killed in the attack 70km northwest of Islamabad.

In the past year Pakistani authorities have cracked down hard on the myriad insurgent groups that have plagued the country for a decade.

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