Senior minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Bashir Bilour. — Photo by APP

PESHAWAR: A senior minister of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Bashir Bilour, on Monday said militants were “targeting police to pressure and dishearten them”.

But he told reporters such attacks would not weaken the government’s commitment to combat militancy.

“We will continue our fight against terrorism. We will not be deterred, it will only strengthen our resolve to eliminate terrorists,” he added.

The statement came as six people, including a senior police official, were killed and 14 people wounded in two bomb blasts in Peshawar on Monday, the first detonated by a teenage suicide bomber.

Pakistan’s northwest and tribal areas have been wracked by violence, mostly targeting security officials, since hundreds of Taliban and al Qaeda fighters sought refuge there after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Some 4,000 people have been killed in bomb blasts, suicide and gun attacks since July 2007.

The government has claimed a number of military successes against the militants during the last two years, but attacks continue across the country and are concentrated in the northwest.