Authorities said that a pro-government tribal leader and three other people were killed Monday when a suicide bomber rammed his car into theirs in northwest Pakistan.

Inspector Wali Ayaz said tribal elder Maulana Abdul Hakeem and his three bodyguards were traveling in the Bannu district when the attack occurred.

The attacker also died.

Hakeem was the leader of a pro-government militia known as Lashkars organized to fight the Taliban in Pakistan.

Pakistani security forces have relied in recent months on local Lashkars to establish security in Taliban strongholds.

Earlier, militants killed another Lashkar leader in Bannu on Thursday when they opened fire on his convoy.

Bannu is the principal city of Bannu District in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. An important road junction and market city, Bannu is a very old city, founded towards the end of the 15th century; however, the present location of downtown Bannu was founded by Sir Herbert Edwardes in 1848, and was formerly called Edwardesabad and Dhulipnagar.

(via CNN)