At least one policeman was killed and eight other people including two cops were injured in a suicide bomb attack that hit Pakistan's northwestern district of Charsadda on Saturday afternoon, according to local police and officials.

Pakistan Taliban claimed the responsibility for the attack.

Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani issued a statement strongly condemning the attack and Interior Minister of Pakistan Rehman Malik demanded local authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident.

The attack came at about 5:00 p.m. in the Kangra area of Charsadda, a district located to the north of Peshawar when a convoy carrying a local politician was attacked by a suicide bomber while on his way back after addressing a public gathering in the district.

The target of the attack is Aftab Ahmad Sherpao, head of a small party which separated from the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party years ago. Local media quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the suicide bomber threw himself between a police car and a black Toyota Prado which carried Sherpao and detonated the suicide jacket he was wearing.

Sherpao remained unhurt in the attack, but a local provincial assembly member who accompanied him in the car was injured as he was sitting in the front of the car.

Local TV footage showed that both the police car and Sherpao's car were seriously damaged in the explosion. Bomb disposal squad later found the head and the legs of the suicide bomber on the spot. An estimated five to six kilograms of explosives were used in the attack, they said.