A Taliban suicide bomber attack targeted a senior police officer in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least one police guard and wounding six other people.

A Taliban suicide bomber attack targeted a senior police officer in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least one police guard and wounding six other people, officials said.

Malik Tariq, the deputy commandant of the Frontier Reserve Police (FRP) was critically wounded in the attack in Peshawar, the capital of troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the northwest.

"The bomber was on a motorcycle and he rammed it into the vehicle of Malik Tariq who was on his way to the office," Mian Saeed, a senior police official told reporters at the scene.

The FRP is an auxiliary force that can be called up to help the regular police in times of need.

A spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed the attack in a statement on the group's website.

Pakistan has been battling a homegrown extremist insurgency for over a decade following the late 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

The Pakistan army began a major campaign against Taliban and other militant strongholds in the North Waziristan tribal area in June last year and authorities have now vowed to intensify operations both in the border regions and across the country.