KHAR, Pakistan _ A bombing in a Pakistani market close to the Afghan border killed 16 people Friday, officials said, a day after the U.S. released letters seized from Osama bin Laden's compound that criticized Pakistani militants for killing too many civilians. Five of the dead in the Bajur region blast were local members of the security forces, including one who had received an award for bravery in fighting Islamist militants, government administrator Abdul Haseeb said. The others were passers-by. At least 40 people were wounded. The Pakistani Taliban or allied groups will be suspected in the attack. The group, which is battling for control of the region, has killed and wounded thousands of people since 2009, many of them civilians in markets or mosques. On Thursday, the U.S. released 17 letters seized from the compound of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden by American commandos after they had killed him one year ago. Two senior al-Qaida leaders wrote a letter to Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud in December 2010 criticizing the group for carrying out attacks in markets, mosques and other places that kill innocent Muslims. It accused the group of making ``clear legal and religious mistakes which might result in a negative deviation from the set path of the jihadists' movement in Pakistan.'' The group's actions also ``are contrary to the objectives of jihad and to the efforts exerted by us,'' said the letter, which was written by Abu Yahya al-Libi and a militant leader identified as Atiyatullah.