Islamabad:
Militants Monday killed three people in attacks targeting police in Pakistan's restive northwest, officials said. A suicide bomber killed one policeman in Tahl, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) southwest of Peshawar, while two brothers of a police station chief died in a separate attack on his home in Dera Ismail Khan.
"A group of up to six militants attacked Tahl police station and one of the attackers blew himself when police intercepted them and responded to firing," district police chief Anwar Saeed Kundi told AFP.
"A policeman was martyred and another was wounded," he said and added that the remaining attackers fled after the suicide bombing.
Separately militants attacked the home of a police station chief in Dera Ismail Khan, some 240 kilometres south of Peshawar, and killed his two brothers, district police chief Sadiq Baloch told AFP.
Police officer Saifur Rehman was not at home when the attack occurred, he added.
Baloch said Rehman's brothers were killed in revenge for an operation Sunday in which one militant was killed and another wounded.
Nobody claimed the responsibility for the attacks but Taliban militants routinely target police and security forces in area.
Pakistan began a long-awaited push to clear insurgent bases from the North Waziristan tribal area in June after a bloody raid on Karachi airport dashed hopes in a series of faltering peace talks with the rebels.
North Waziristan has become a major base for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistani Taliban), which rose up against the state in 2007.
The United States has long called for action in the area against militant groups targeting NATO forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Pakistan's army says it has killed more than 900 militants and lost 82 soldiers since the start of the operation.