The Taliban ended its lull in attacks in Pakistan with a suicide attack against a member of the provincial assembly in the Northwest Frontier Province.

A Taliban suicide bomber, said to be in his early 20s, killed Dr. Shamsher Ali Khan, a member of the provincial assembly, as he was greeting friends and constituents outside his home in Swat. Khan's brother was also killed in the attack.

The attack took place less than a mile from Imam Dehri, the home of Swat Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah, who ran a mosque and an illegal FM radio station there before the Pakistani military operation was launched in the spring. The military claimed that more than 2,000 Taliban fighters were killed and 8,000 more were captured during the Swat operation.

Khan was a member of the Awami National Party, the ruling, secular Pashtun party in the Northwest Frontier Province which supports dialogue to resolve the Taliban problem.

The Taliban placed Khan and other political, police, and government officials in Swat on a death list that was issued in the spring, according to Geo News.

The Taliban also assassinated a leader of the Awami National Party in the district of Nowshera on Nov. 16.

Today's suicide bombing is the first major attack since Nov. 19, when a suicide bomber killed 19 Pakistanis outside a court complex in Peshawar. The Taliban launched their terror campaign on Oct. 5, two weeks before the military began the ground phase of the operation in South Waziristan.

Suicide attacks have targeted the headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency, police stations and checkpoints, markets, and anti-Taliban leaders in Peshawar.

The Taliban have also attacked the Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, police centers in Lahore, UN offices in Islamabad, and police, military, and civilian targets throughout the northwest. Anti-Taliban tribal leaders who have raised militias have also become the target of attacks.