A journalist on the hit list of a feared militant leader was killed by a remote-controlled bomb planted in his car late Tuesday, officials said. Nasrullah Afridi, 38, who had been working for state-run Pakistan Television and several newspapers in the Khyber tribal district, died when his car exploded in Peshawar, local police chief Liaquat Ali told AFP.
"A remote-controlled device was planted in the rear part of his car which had been parked in a commercial area," he said, adding that it detonated soon after Afridi returned and started the vehicle. Provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain called it a targeted killing. It was a small bomb with about one kilogram (two pounds) of explosives, officials said. Police said Afridi had received threats from a home-grown militant group in Khyber led by warlord Mangal Bagh.