At least 27 people were killed and 67 injured when a suicide bomber attacked the funeral of a local man in the Samar Bagh area of the Lower Dir district on Thursday, police said.
Lower Dir District Police Officer Saleem Marwat told The Express Tribune that the blast struck as mourners were preparing to offer prayers for Bakht Sultan in the Berosheena area of Samar Bagh tehsil.
He added that at least 10 kilogrammes of explosives were packed in the suicide vest.
The blast came two days after four schoolchildren were killed in an explosion claimed by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday’s attack.
Regarding the motives behind the attack, Marwat said that it was apparently neither aimed at some high profile figure nor was it target killing. “The children of Bakht Sultan are carpenters and they are poor people,” he added.
However, AFP quotes the senior police official as saying that the bomber targeted members of a state-sponsored anti-Taliban militia operating in the area. He reportedly said the bomber’s head had been retrieved from the scene and indicated that the attacker, who had hidden in the nearby fields, was in his late teens.
Local sources told The Express Tribune that Bakht Sultan was killed in a traffic accident on the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway on Wednesday.
Sources quoted witnesses who said that the blast took place when the funeral prayers were in progress. A teenage boy, approximately 15-years-old, initially failed to detonate explosives strapped to his body, they added, but was successful in his second attempt.
Local senior police official Akhtar Hayat Gandapur said that more than 100 people were in attendance at the funeral.
Zahoor Khan, the owner of a medical store in Jandol, described scenes of devastation following the explosion.
“I could see pools of blood everywhere on the ground with pieces of flesh lying on the ground,” he said.
“There were mutilated bodies everywhere. People were collecting the remains of the dead in bed sheets.”
The injured were rushed to the Timergarah and Samar Bagh hospitals, where an emergency was declared. Some of those in a critical condition were moved to Peshawar for treatment.
Samar Bagh tehsil in Lower Dir district is situated close to the Pak-Afghan border.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 16th, 2011.
COMMENTS (31)
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Great security failure and loose and lazy border security. This is about causing bloodshed in Pakistan by its enemies. A quite successful Indian proxy war . . . no lets not blame any one but the ring leader and that is India. History speaks for its self and actions speak louder than words. Pakistan has been ignorant while India has been busy quietly funding, plotting and planning. These acts of crime against the Pakistani population definately has a financial backing of India and its criminals that is bent upon stampeding over Pakistan. It is just commonsense. . . Somehow the Pakistani leadership is missing the point. . . .or wants to stay mum because it is so overwhelming all of a sudden and they were not ready and farsighted enough to take military's help and see this enemy infiltration coming . . . . Section 144 would have prevented these kinds of tragedies and caught the culprits instantly.
@Pragmatist They want entire Pakistan after few years they will demand entire world can we give it to them
My question is: What do they want? Whatever it is, just give it to them.
I'd be careful with the funerals of the children they kill. It almost seems as if one strategy is to target those who would gather the most sympathy and support and then bomb them when they gather after the fact.
It's messed up but it's still a viable strategy if you really have no issues with who is killed and are concentrating on numbers.
By careful I don't mean not do it. I mean keep your eyes open.
And what is our Army doing? Oh wait these were good Taliban or bad Taliban? Or is there any thing like that?
What a shame.... We don't need CIA INDIA MOSSAD to alienate us. This will be our own hungry people.
@ ET: A request:
Please filter insensitive comments on such news items.
I am having a laugh as I read this post :)
and many muslims still feel 100% sharia is what is required for a peaceful land. if a few loonies asking for shariah can be so murderous, we should well realise what a land infested with "shariah " screaming perverts would look like
Brutal. These people are inhumane. I'm glad other commenters are picking up on how awful Imran Khan and PTI are for misleading the common man.
This is our war.
Going to mosques is extremely risky and dangerous. You never know when there would be a suicide bomber and kill every one there. Especially if it is a Shia or a Ahmadi mosque. Going for funeral is also risky..
Everyone should just stay home and pray.
The funeral was for a person who fought against the Taliban and was on the side of the government. Given that the Taliban have been known bomb funerals of pro-government leaders I am astounded that no precaution was taken.
Unless we unite and stand up to these animals this slaughter of our people will continue. There are people, like the Salarzai's, who have raised arms against these Taliban animals. We have to support them with donations and weapons.
@ IShtiaer We are the slaves of our ideology. The ideology of Political Islam.
@Grace: Please identify the anti-government agencies that you claim are funding the extremists attacking school children and funerals. And please describe this evidence you speak of.
@TightDhoti: That's right this act is directly or indirectly supported by anti state criminals on the payroll of foreign agencies. Since the cowards are on the run, all they can do is attack children in schools, women in markets, civilians in mosques etc. There is ample evidence to show that the funding to support these criminals comes from anti government agencies.
RIP my dear countrymen. But we assure you your sacrifices won't go to waste as we are about to defeat America in Afghanistan. Yes we also know how to fool the rest of the zombies, the ones still breathing, by blaming it on CIA, MOSSAD, RAW, and Pharioh of course. Or we can deny it simply. Yes, come on Imran Khan confuse the zombies a bit more with a denial that these are mere government propaganda. Or that a disgruntled pakhtoon took revenge. But no sir, this is not revenge, this is an evil ideology at work, which our state promoted for 40 years in our region. You know it well and so do us.
Blowing people up in Mosque's - kidnapping children - and now blowing people up at funerals.- is their any limit to their depravity? Pakistan is becoming such a violent/nasty place that I have no doubt that if you granted citizenship and first class airfare to Palestinian's stuck in Gaza you would get no takers.
These days I am seeing a strange resurgnece of the word miscreants to denote terrorists...
So where is Imran Khan who claims that TTP is an expression of pushtoon nationalism. Where in history did pushtoon bomb funerals of tribal leaders?
These barbarians have no humanity left inside them.
Now it must be clear to everyone. TTP wants to takeover Pakistan. Sorry for the people who get trespassed. May the departed souls RIP.
It seems that pakistan is a fragmented society. Taliban gets their inputs from section of fellow Pakistanis and also killing them. Unless all Mullahs, Imrankhan, feudal heads, military & local and central govt condemn this acts in unison, this acts going to continue.
These people can see moon when its not there, but they cannot see a suicide bomber.
Muslims killing Muslims in the name of Islam. When murder based on ideology is accepted as legitimate, no one is safe. Think about it before you celebrate the next Quadri.
Thank you dear Imran Khan & Syed Munnawar Hasan for still supporting the Taliban !
So Pakistan? Who is it this time? RAW? CIA? Mossad? MI5? Foreign hand cannot be ruled out or "yeh tau Musalmaan nahi ho saktai"?