Islamabad - A senior minister in Pakistan's troubled North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) on Wednesday narrowly escaped a gun and bomb attack that left six people, including the attackers, dead, a police official said.

Bashir Ahmad Balour was visiting the Namak Mandy area in provincial capital Peshawar, when his bodyguards saw two armed men approaching the minister.

The police opened fire on the suspects, who fled and forced their way into a nearby house.

Under heavy fire from the police, the two militants detonated an explosive device they were carrying, killing themselves.

Two women and a passer-by were killed during the exchange of fire, and an injured teenager later died of their injuries at the hospital.

The Peshawar city police officer, Sifghat Ghayur, said both the militants were suicide bombers.

The minister later told reporters that the militants that were targeting politicians were enemies of peace.

The provincial government was committed to bring peace in the entire province, including Swat district and tribal areas, he added. The two regions are a hotbed of militancy.

The leaders of secular Awami National Party (ANP) that rules NWFP have come under increasing attacks by the Islamic militants. Last month terrorists killed ANP's law maker Alam Zeb Khan in a bomb attack.

According to the figures available with the party's central secretariat, over 100 supporters and leaders of ANP have so far been killed in troubled Swat, where security forces have fought pro- Taliban fighters since late 2007.

A number of others ANP loyalists were forced to flee their homes, or resign from the party, the English-language Daily Times newspaper reported last month.

However, the attacks on ANP supporters have almost come to a halt since it signed a peace agreement with Swat rebels in February, which accepts their demand of enforcing Islamic sharia law in the region.

No one has claimed the responsibility for Wednesday's assassination attempt on Bilour and it was not clear who might be behind it. (dpa)