23 Dead, 50 Hurt in Pakistan Suicide Attack
A suicide bomber targeting members of an anti-Taliban militia blew himself up during funeral prayers in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing 23 people and wounding 50 others, police said.
The attacker struck as mourners were preparing for prayers being held in open ground near corn fields in Jandol town in the district of Lower Dir, 100 kilometers from the once Taliban-infested Swat Valley.
The blast came two days after four boys connected to another northwestern anti-militant group were killed in another explosion that was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday's attack.
"At least 23 people were killed and more than 50 wounded in the attack," said senior police official Salim Khan Marwat, adding that the bomber targeted members of a state-sponsored anti-Taliban militia operating in the area.
"It was a suicide attack. A bomber came on foot and blew himself up in the middle of people as they were about to start prayers."
Local senior police official Akhtar Hayat Gandapur said there were more than 100 people attending the funeral.
The owner of a medical store in Jandol described scenes of bloody devastation following the explosion.
"I could see pools of blood everywhere on the ground with pieces of flesh ... lying on the ground," said store owner Zahoor Khan.
"There were mutilated bodies everywhere ... People were collecting the remains of the dead in bed sheets and these scenes were very disturbing."
On Tuesday on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar, gateway to the militant-infested tribal zone, the Pakistani Taliban ambushed a school bus, killing four boys and the driver.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan said the attack was to punish a local tribe which formed a lashkar, or group, against it.
The children studied at an elite English-language school of a type reviled by hardline Islamist militants who oppose what they see as Western-imported, secular education.
Also in Lower Dir on Tuesday, a local leader in the area's main ruling Awami National Party was killed when a makeshift bomb blew up his vehicle.
In 2009, 30,000 Pakistani troops went into battle against Taliban fighters who for two years had terrorized people with a campaign of beheadings, violence and attacks on girls' schools in Swat and parts of Dir.
The army declared the region back under control in July of that year and said the rebels had all been killed, captured or had fled.
The army is now trying to encourage tourists to return to Swat, once beloved by Pakistani and Western holidaymakers for its stunning mountains, balmy summer weather and winter skiing easily accessible from the capital Islamabad.
Bombings blamed on Taliban and al-Qaida-linked networks have killed more than 4,630 people since 2007, destabilizing the nuclear-armed state.