Peshawar, Mar 9: At least 37 mourners were killed and over 50 others injured Wednesday when a suicide bomber attacked a funeral attended by members of an anti-Taliban militia in Pakistan's troubled northwest, the latest in a string of terror attacks that have rocked the country.
The bomber targeted the funeral prayers of the wife of Hakeem Khan, a leader of the "peace committee" or anti-Taliban militia of Adezai, a tribal area near Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
 The attacker, a youth who was on foot, joined a crowd of mourners at Mattani, 35 km south of Peshawar, and detonated his explosive vest.
 Over 200 tribesmen were attending the funeral.
 Bomb disposal experts from the army later carried out the controlled detonation of a bomb that was found at the site of the attack.
 Officials at the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar said they had received 36 bodies and 51 injured. The condition of 10 of the injured was serious, the officials said.
 The Darra Adam Khel chapter of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was carried out to avenge the killing of militants in a military operation in Adezai area.
 Witnesses and local residents said 25 people, including young boys and elderly men, were killed instantly while others died in hospital.
 The anti-Taliban militia of Adezai, formed in 2008, has been at the forefront of efforts by tribesmen to flush out militants from the region around Peshawar.
 A leader of the militia, Abdul Malik, was killed in a suicide attack in 2009.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 9 Mar 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 9 Mar 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 10 Mar 2011 00:00:00 IST