At least three people were killed and six others were injured Friday as a suicide bomber attacked a minority worship place in Mardan, a district in northwest Pakistan, police said, Xinhua reported.
The attack targeted the worship place for Ahmedis, a religious minority group, in Canal Road area in main town Mardan, some 60 km northwest of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
"It was a suicide attack," Mardan District Administrative Coordinating Officer Waqif Khan told Xinhua.
Security guards at the gate of the worship place tried to stop two suspicious persons from entering the building but one of them exploded his suicide jacket, police said.
The blast killed both the bomber and a guard while the other suspect managed to flee. Eyewitnesses said that walls of the temple fell down and casualties could have been more if the bomber entered the worship place.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack but the government blames such attacks on Taliban militants.
Friday carries significance for Muslims and Muslim minority Ahmadis and faithful congregate in large numbers for the weekly afternoon prayers. On another Friday of May 28, two worship places of Ahmadi community were attacked in the eastern city of Lahore, killing over 70 people and injuring more worshipers.
Hours before the Mardan attack, a roadside bomb targeted a police mobile van and killed a policeman and injured three others, police said.
On Wednesday, 37 people were killed and over 300 injured in two suicide blasts and a grenade attack in a Shia community mourning procession in the eastern city of Lahore. Pakistani Taliban, the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has claimed the responsibility for the Lahore bombings.