Pakistani Minister Escapes Taliban Attack

A provincial cabinet minister from Pakistan's main ruling party escaped unhurt Monday when Taliban militants opened fire on his vehicle in the country's troubled northwest, officials said.

Amjad Khan Afridi, minister for housing and physical planning in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was travelling in his bullet-proof car when militants hiding in the Bilitang area of Kohat district opened fire, police said.

"Militants fired three sniper shots from the nearby hills. One bullet hit the car's windscreen. The minister is safe," Mubarak Zeb, police chief in Kohat district, told Agence France Presse.

"The minister was the target. Militants were involved in this attack," he added.

An intelligence official in Peshawar, the provincial capital, blamed the attack on the Taliban.

Afridi, a member of President Asif Ali Zardari's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) had a police escort at the time of the attack, the official added.

Pakistan's northwest is deeply troubled by violence blamed on the Taliban and al-Qaida allies, who have strongholds in semi-autonomous tribal districts on the border with Afghanistan, where U.S. troops are fighting a 10-year war.

Since Pakistani troops stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad in 2007, more than 4,700 people have been killed across the country in militant attacks.