At least 18 killed in blast in Lower Dir

[Roybot]

PESHAWAR: A bomb explosion during funeral prayers held for a local elder killed at least 18 people and wounded 47 others in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, police said.

The incident took place in the district of Lower Dir, 100 kilometres northwest of the Swat valley where the military in 2009 launched a large-scale operation to crack down on militants.

Senior police official Salim Khan Marwat said the explosion targeted members of a government-sponsored anti-Taliban militia operating in the area.

Another local senior police official Akhtar Hayat Gandapur confirmed the blast and said the explosion rocked funeral prayers of a local elder in Lower Dir’s Jandol town.

“We are trying to ascertain whether it was a timed device or suicide attack,” he said.

http://www.dawn.com/2011/09/15/blast-in-lower-dir-during-funeral-prayers.html

RIP. These people are fked in the head. They don't even spare kids and funeral prayers anymore.

 

[cybertron]

RIP to the dead.

 

[xTra]

RIP to dead. May the killer rot in hell.

 

[Roybot]

Death toll is 31 now.

 

[DarK-LorD]

Rest in Peace.

 

[Prateek M]

RIP........

 

[Quick MIK]

strongly condemn this barbaric act.RIP dead.............

 

[President Camacho]

RIP. These people are fked in the head. They don't even spare kids and funeral prayers anymore.

No, it's not that. It's a tug of war between different factions and powers, and such attacks are meant to replace an unfavorable tribal elder with a favorable one. Anyone attending the funeral of that village elder is supportive of the sides he took. So it is more of a target killing of the mass.

And more than often, tribes are pretty much divided, so there are many moles providing first class intel services.

 

[jha]

At least 31 killed in blast in Lower Dir

LOWER DIR: A suicide bomber attacked a funeral of a member of a pro-government Pashtun tribe in a village in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least 31 people, police said.

More than 35 people were wounded in the attack in Lower Dir district near the Afghan border, where Taliban militants have carried out several attacks over recent years.

“It was a suicide attack and it happened when people were offering funeral prayers,” police official Saleem Marwat told Reuters.

Pakistani Taliban militants have stepped up attacks on pro-government tribes recently.

The militants claimed responsibility for an attack on a school bus on Tuesday which killed five people, saying the children on the bus were from a pro-government tribe.

The US-backed government has persuaded some tribes to take up arms against militant groups.

The Pakistani Taliban are holding hostage more than 20 young men from another pro-government Pashtun tribe in an area straddling the border with Afghanistan and have demanded the release of scores of prisoners and an end to support of offensives against them.

The teenage tribesmen from the northwestern Bajaur region were abducted by the militants on Aug. 31 while they were on an outing in Afghanistan’s border province of Kunar.

 

[fd24]

Yet another atrocity committed. Senseless life taken. These guys whoever and whatever are the lowest form of human. They are not Muslims. Hope they go to sleep tonight and never wake up

 

[RockyX]

RIP to dead.

 

[DV RULES]

RIP to dead

 

[Jango]

not even a funeral is left alone, what sick people. RIP to the dead.

 

[Windjammer]

No, it's not that. It's a tug of war between different factions and powers, and such attacks are meant to replace an unfavorable tribal elder with a favorable one. Anyone attending the funeral of that village elder is supportive of the sides he took. So it is more of a target killing of the mass.

And more than often, tribes are pretty much divided, so there are many moles providing first class intel services.

Senior police official Salim Khan Marwat said the explosion targeted members of a government-sponsored anti-Taliban militia operating in the area.

 

[Veeru]

31 killed, 50 injured in Pakistan suicide blast

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- At least 31 people were killed and some 50 others injured when a suicide bomber hit a pro- government elder's funeral in Pakistan's northwest district of Lower Dir on Thursday, reported local Urdu TV channel DAWN.

The report quoted police sources as saying that a suicide bomber blew himself up among hundreds of people attending the funeral in the Sadberg Village in the Jandol area of Lower Dir District in northwest Pakistan on Thursday afternoon.

The funeral was held for an elder named Malik Sultan in the village which is located close to the Afghanistan border. The people living in the village belong to Mashwani tribe who has always been supporting the government in the fight against the militants.

Many civil militiamen leaders participated in the funeral and the target is obviously them who are leading the local people in the fight against the militants, said the report.

All the injured people have been shifted to the local Timargara hospital following the attack. Hospital sources said that some of the injured people were still in critical condition.

So far there is no further information about the identity of the suicide bomber. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

As the village is located in the deep mountainous area far away from anywhere, there is scanty information about the blast details. No footage of the blast scene has been shown by local TV channels.

Both Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the suicide blast shortly after the incident was reported.

Taliban militants have in the past carried out similar suicide attacks on funerals for pro-government tribal elders and police officers.

In April, a Taliban suicide bomber attacked a funeral for the wife of a pro-government tribal leader near Peshawar and it killed over 30 people and injured many others.

31 killed, 50 injured in Pakistan suicide blast