ISLAMABAD, Feb 3 (Reuters) - A suspected pro-Taliban militant blew himself up while planting a bomb outside a video and music shop in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province on Saturday, police said. The blast damaged a dozen nearby shops in Lakki Marwat, a town in Bannu district, a settled area at the gateway to the restive North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan. "He was trying to plant the bomb outside a video shop when it went off and blew him to pieces," a senior police official, Ashraf Zaman, told Reuters. Zaman said no one claimed the responsibility, but pro-Talilban militants, following austere interpretations of Islam, have often targeted music shops in the conservative tribal regions and nearby settled areas. North and South Waziristan are regarded as hotbeds of support for al Qaeda and Taliban, and peace deals struck with the government in both regions are hanging by a thread following an army airstrike on a militant base last month.
