By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – A suicide bomber on Tuesday blew himself up inside a government building in northwestern Pakistan, killing one person and injuring another 18, local police officials said.

The bomber struck a tax department building in the Mardan district some 40 kilometers from Peshawar, regional capital of the violence-hit Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KP) province (which lies on the border with Afghanistan), municipal police chief Faisal Shahzad told reporters.

Eyewitnesses told police that the bomber, apparently acting alone, walked into the building and blew himself up near a small crowd of people.

The blast occurred only hours after a much larger suicide attack rocked Afghan capital Kabul, killing at least 28 people and injuring hundreds of others.

Last year, at least 26 people were killed — and scores others injured — in a similar suicide attack that targeted Mardan’s database registration office.

According to Interior Ministry figures, suicide attacks in Pakistan have declined by some 70 percent since 2014, following a wide-ranging military operation against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group.

[Photo: An inside view of the scene of a bomb attack in the Mardan district some 40 kilometers from Peshawar, Pakistan on April 19, 2016.  Photographer: A.Ali/AA]