A suicide bomber attacked a funeral attended by an anti-Taliban
politician in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, killing at least 15
mourners, officials said.
The politician, Khush Dil Khan, escaped unhurt in the blast on the outskirts of Peshawar, the main city in the northwest.
Islamist
militants are fighting a vicious war against Pakistani security forces
in and around Peshawar, which lies close to border regions with
Afghanistan where extremists hold sway.
Thousands of civilians and
security officials have been killed over the last few years in the
militants attacks, which appeared to have been decreasing lately due to
the Pakistani army's operations in the tribal regions and the
elimination of several key Taliban and al-Qaida leaders in U.S. drone
strikes.
Police officer Abid Rehman said the attacker managed to
get inside the compound where funeral prayers were being held in Badhber
village. Peshawar deputy commissioner Siraj Ahmad said the explosion
killed 15 people and wounded another 37.
The two officials said several of the wounded people were in critical condition.
"We
are devastated," said Zahir Khan, 32, weeping while lying in a hospital
bed. His elder brother died in the attack. He said they were chatting
when the bomb went off. "I never knew I was going to lose my brother
forever."
Khan, the politician, comes from the secular-leaning
Awami National Party that holds power in the northwestern Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province. He expressed his party's resolve to continue the
struggle against militancy. "It is a fight for the country's survival,"
he said.
The Pakistani Taliban have targeted several of its
leaders in the past. The party has supported various Pakistani military
operations against the militants.
On Saturday, security forces
claimed to have killed 39 militants in fighting in Bara district in
Khyber tribal region, which is close to Peshawar and is the current
focus of anti-Taliban operations. Four security force members were also
killed, according to a brief statement from the paramilitary Frontier
Corps.
The police said it was not yet clear whether the bombing could be a reaction to the latest fighting.
A
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Mohammad Afridi downplayed Saturday's
operation against the militants saying that such operations "hardly
matter" to the militants. He took responsibility for the Sunday suicide
bombing and said the politician was targeted because he had set up a
militia to battle against the Taliban.
"These militias are the front lines for the Pakistani army," he told The Associated Press by phone from an undisclosed location. AP
