• 15:16
  • Thursday ,10 March 2011
العربية

Deadly attack at Pakistan funeral procession

By-BBC

International News

00:03

Thursday ,10 March 2011

Deadly attack at Pakistan funeral procession

At least 34 people have been killed in a suicide bombing at a funeral procession in north-western Pakistan.

Officials said the funeral was for the wife of a pro-government ethnic Pashtun tribal elder in Adezai village in the troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
It was being attended by many anti-Taliban militiamen in the region. At least 40 people were wounded.
Several anti-Taliban tribal groups are based in the area and they are often targeted by the insurgents.
A spokesman for the Taliban told the BBC that they carried out the bombing.
He said it was in retaliation for the support by local tribal militia of the ongoing anti-Taliban operation by Pakistan's security forces.
The bomber targeted the funeral of the wife of Hakim Khan - a leader of the anti-Taliban tribal force in Adezai, some 15km (10 miles) from Peshawar city.
"The suicide bomber walked into the crowd of mourners and exploded himself. That is why we have so many casualties," head of Peshawar administration Siraj Ahmed Khan said.
Adezai, located in the Mattani area, has been the centre of a tribal anti-Taliban force raised with the government support, the BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says.
A former head of the force, Abdul Malik, was killed in a bomb attack in 2009.
The area has also seen frequent Taliban attacks on police stations and security posts, our correspondent adds.
Until recently, the tribal anti-Taliban force had been conducting night patrols to discourage Taliban attacks but it ended some weeks ago as the government's supply of arms and ammunition to the members of the force dwindled.
The attack comes a day after at least 26 people were killed and more than 120 injured in a car bomb explosion at a gas station in the city of Faisalabad.
The Taliban said they were behind Tuesday's attack.