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ISLAMABAD (PAN‘s northwestern tribal region of Bajaur on Saturday, officials said.

The explosion took place in Salarzai tehsil of Bajaur, bordering Afghanistan‘s eastern province of Kunar, a local political administration official told Pajhwok Afghan News over the telephone.

A dozen people were injured, at least three of them seriously, in the powerful blast in a hotel, owned by a tribesman named Malik Mian Jan. The building was flattened, Mohammad Khursheed said.

Mian Jan and another tribal chieftain Tehsil Khan — both members of a local peace body — were among the dead. Security forces ringed the area after the bombing and casualties were shifted to hospitals, where an emergency was declared.

The explosion was the latest in a series of deadly insurgent attacks since Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s death in a US raid in Abbottabad on May 2. The Al Qaeda-allied Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has vowed to avenge the killing.

On Thursday, a suicide car bomber killed more than 35 people outside a police station in Hangu city. Early this week, the TTP stormed a high-security naval base in Karachi.

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