Three dead in Waziristan attacks

At least three people have been killed and several others injured in two separate attacks in Pakistan's northern tribal areas.

Two security personnel died when a car exploded at a checkpoint in North Waziristan near the Afghan border. The driver of the car was also killed.

In another incident masked gunmen shot dead a pro-government tribal leader.

Malik Takhti Khan was suspected by militants of handing information about them to government officials.

A soldier and a policeman were killed at the checkpoint in Datta Khel, when they tried to stop a car.

The driver refused to stop and opened fire, killing the two men, and wounded three other soldiers, before he was shot dead as the car exploded.

The blast was the result of a suicide attack, said a spokesman for a local militant group, Abdullah Farhad.

"We wanted to show our anger at the searches of our women by security forces," he said. "It is better to die with honour than be ridiculed."

The military said it might be a suicide attack. Major General Sultan told the BBC: "I don't deny it as yet."

Market murder

Earlier, militants shot dead Malik Takhti Khan, as he was shopping in Mir Ali.

He was the leader of the influential Jani Khel clan and was the latest in a series of victims among the region's elders and tribal leaders.

Two masked gunmen fled by car after the shooting, witnesses said.

The army has been battling Islamic militants in the Waziristan region for the last three years.

Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters fled into the area after the American-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Tens of thousands of Pakistani soldiers are deployed in the area.