Islamabad, Dec 18: A suspected suicide bomber struck near a mosque packed with Friday worshippers close to a police compound in militancy-hit Malakand region of northwest Pakistan today, killing at least ten persons and injuring over 20 others.
 The attack occurred in Timergarah area of Dir district, police said. Four persons were killed instantly while two more succumbed to their injuries in hospital, district police chief Falak Naz Khan said.
 More than 20 people were injured and four cars destroyed in the attack, officials said.
 Khan said the attack was apparently carried out by a suicide bomber while Friday prayers were underway at the mosque. Security forces cordoned off the area as ambulances took the dead and injured to nearby hospitals.
 Human flesh lay strewn at the site of the blast as smoke engulfed the police lines. No group claimed responsibility for the attack. Militants have targeted mosques during Friday prayers on several occasions in the recent past.
 Forty people, including a serving army major general, were killed in a suicide attack on a mosque frequented by military personnel in Rawalpindi on December 4.
 Hundreds of people have died across Pakistan in a recent wave of bombings and suicide attacks blamed on the local Taliban.   Security forces conducted a major operation in Malakand region earlier this year after the Taliban fighters took advantage of a peace deal in the Swat valley to extend their influence to Dir and Buner districts.
 The army has claimed that Dir and Buner have been cleared of militants.
 President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned today’s attack.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:00:00 IST