E-Paper
Suicide bomber kills 37 in Pakistan
A suicide bomber targeting members of anti-Taliban militia at a funeral in northwestern Pakistan killed 37 people and wounded at least 45 others on Wednesday, police said.
A suicide bomber targeting members of anti-Taliban militia at a funeral in northwestern Pakistan killed 37 people and wounded at least 45 others on Wednesday, police said.
Police and witnesses said the bomber had slipped into the congregation of more than 200 people attending funeral prayers for the wife of a known anti-Taliban militiaman in Adezai village, near Peshawar city.
Television footage showed bearded elderly men wearing bloodstained clothes rushing from the scene in panic.
Prayer caps and slippers lay alongside scattered body parts at the prayer site, which was spattered with blood.
“We have taken 37 dead bodies and 45 injured to the hospital,” Kalam Khan, a senior police officer at the site, said.
The head of the main hospital in Peshawar city, Abdul Hameed Afridi, told AFP that 36 bodies had been received along with body parts, and warned that the death toll could rise, with several people critically injured.
Witness Gul Akbar, 22, said the blast took place as those attending the funeral had lined up to offer prayers.
