Bomb attacks hit three major cities in Pakistan on Thursday, killing six people and wounding nearly 50, a day after the Taliban leader said he was still open to government peace talks.

Bomb attacks hit three major cities in Pakistan on Thursday, killing six people and wounding nearly 50, a day after the Taliban leader said he was still open to government peace talks.

In the day's deadliest attack, a bicycle bomb tore through a crowded market area near a police station in the restive southwestern city of Quetta, killing five people.

Earlier a low-intensity blast at a restaurant killed one person and wounded 13 in a popular food street in Lahore, the normally relatively peaceful capital of Punjab province which is the powerbase of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

A third blast on Thursday wounded a police officer on the ring road in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which has regularly been hit by gun and bomb attacks in recent years.

Those killed in the Quetta attack included a policeman, city police chief Abdul Razaaq Cheema said, while women and children were among the wounded.

"It was a timed device which was planted in a bicycle. Five people have been killed and 35 wounded," he said.

Rescue and hospital officials confirmed the death toll while a bomb disposal expert put the size of the device at around six kilograms (13 pounds).

Thursday's attacks came a day after a rare video interview was broadcast with Pakistan Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, who said he was still open to peace talks but complained the government had not taken any serious steps to begin a dialogue.

Thousands of people have been killed in bomb and gun attacks by homegrown extremist militants in Pakistan in recent years.
The violence has largely focused on the country's northwest, where Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants have hideouts in the tribal areas along the Afghan border.