Ten killed, 25 injured in Pakistan bombing: police
A bomb targeting members of an anti-Taliban militia exploded during funeral prayers in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least ten people and wounding 25 others, police said.
The incident took place in the district of Lower Dir, 100 kilometres from the once Taliban-infested Swat valley, and came two days after another bomb in the northwest killed four boys connected to another anti-militant group.
Local senior police official Akhtar Hayat Gandapur said the death toll was likely to rise further.
"Ten people were killed and more than 25 wounded in the attack. We fear that the death toll may rise because there were more than 100 people attending the funeral," he said.
"We are trying to ascertain whether it was a timed device or suicide attack." Senior police official Salim Khan Marwat said the explosion targeted members of a government-sponsored anti-Taliban militia operating in the area.
On Tuesday on the outskirts of northwestern Peshawar city, gateway to the militant-infested tribal zone, the Pakistani Taliban ambushed a school bus, killing four boys and the driver.
It said the attack was to punish a local tribe which formed a lashkar, or group, against it.
The children studied at an elite English-language school of a type reviled by hardline Islamist militants who oppose what they see as Western-imported, secular education.
Also in Lower Dir on Tuesday, a local leader in the area's main ruling Awami National Party (ANP) was killed when a makeshift bomb blew up his vehicle.
In 2009, 30,000 Pakistani troops went into battle against Taliban fighters who for two years had terrorised people with a campaign of beheadings, violence and attacks on girls' schools in Swat and parts of Dir.
The army declared the region back under control in July of that year and said the rebels had all been killed, captured or had fled.
The army is now trying to encourage tourists to return to Swat, once beloved by Pakistani and Western holidaymakers for its stunning mountains, balmy summer climes and winter skiing easily accessible from the capital Islamabad.
Bombings blamed on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked networks have killed more than 4,630 people since 2007, destabilising the nuclear-armed state.
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