10 policemen wounded in Swat valley suicide attack

A suicide attack on a prison van in north-west Pakistan wounded at least 10 policemen today, authorities said.

A car bomber targeted the van as it arrived at a jail in Timergarah, before it picked up prisoners to take to nearby Swat Valley, senior police official Shakeel Khan said. No prisoners were in the van at the time.

Police were planning to use the van to take some of the militants detained during last year's military operation in the region, Khan said.

Timergarah is in deeply conservative Lower Dir district, which is near the Afghan border.

It was a militant stronghold until mid-2009 when the military launched a major offensive and took it back from insurgents. Sporadic violence has continued.