In Pakistan, three burqa-clad militants were gunned down today when bodyguards of an anti-Taliban mayor foiled an attempt by a group of assailants to kill him in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Union Council Nazim (mayor) Muhammad Fahimuddin was meeting people at Badabher on the outskirts of Peshawar this morning when he was informed by his supporters that three suspicious-looking persons in burqas were approaching his guesthouse. Fahimuddin alerted his bodyguards, who gunned down the three attackers when they opened fire at the guesthouse. He said assault rifles and grenades had been found on the burqa-clad attackers. The mayor has organised a militia to fight the Taliban in his town of Bazid Khel near Peshawar. Fahimuddin told reporters that he and his supporters had been attacked and targeted with bombs on at least four previous occasions.Peshawar has witnessed a wave of deadly suicide attacks and bombings since the army mobilised troops for an operation against the Taliban in South Waziristan last month.A dozen people were killed when a suicide car bomber blew himself up near a check post near Peshawar yesterday.