MINGORA, Dec 9: A suicide bomber exploded a vehicle near a highly-guarded checkpoint, killing 10 people, two of them children and three policemen, in Ningwalai on Sunday.

Witnesses said the bomber blew up the explosive-laden double-cabin pick-up after he was stopped for check at the barricade of a checkpoint on the Matta road in Ningwalai, which was a stronghold of the militants.

The head of the bomber and parts of bodies of the people killed in the blast were scattered all around.

“Constable Hazrat Said was searching the vehicle when the bomber blew up the explosives,” said a police official at the police control room.

According to a bomb disposal official, about 10kg to 15kg of explosives were used in the blast.

The policemen died in the bombing were identified as Hazrat Said, Hazir Gul and Israr and two civilians as Sher Malik of Ningwalai and Ibraheem Khan of Tando Dhag. Names of the children and some other deceased could not be ascertained.

Major Amjad Iqbal, a spokesman for the government media centre in Mingora, described the suicide bombing as an act of desperation by the defeated militants.

After the attack, curfew was re-imposed in the Swat district for an indefinite period. However, in Mingora up to Chakdara in its south, it will be relaxed from 7.00am till 6.00pm on Monday.

Meanwhile, bodies of three unidentified were found in Shangwatai area, the native town of the district nazim Jamal Nasir in the restive Matta tehsil. One of the bodies was headless.

Local people said that hands and legs of the victims had been tied and the bodies had marks of torture.

Meanwhile, security forces have arrested four people, including Maulana Rasheed, a candidate for a National Assembly seat from Swat, on charges of having links with militants.

The Maulana, a resident of Daroshkhela, was arrested at the Bariam bridge near Matta. He was part of a team which had earlier negotiated with the government on behalf of Maulana Fazlullah in past.

The other three arrests were made in Kanju Township in the Kabal sub-district.

Meanwhile, people again started moving out of Mingora and its adjoining areas on Sunday, amid reports that the government was preparing for a major operation in the remaining strongholds of militants.