50 people were martyred in a suicide bomb that destroyed a Pakistani mosque during the main weekly prayers and human remains were trapped under a collapsed roof and pulverized rubble.
50 people were martyred in a suicide bomb that destroyed a Pakistani mosque on Friday during the main weekly prayers and human remains were trapped under a collapsed roof and pulverized rubble. "The number of dead is 50 now. There is a possibility it might rise further," local administration official Gul Jamal Khan told AFP. "The number of wounded is more than 100. The dead include 11 children. Some of the bodies are beyond recognition." "More than 70 are wounded and most of them are in a critical condition and have been taken to hospital," said Shahid Ullah, district administration chief of the northwestern garrison town of Kohat. The attack in the volatile northwest was the deadliest in the nuclear-armed country on the front line of the US-led war on Al-Qaeda in two months. Dozens of people were critically wounded and officials feared the toll could rise. The attack turned the main weekly worship into a blood bath in Akhurwall village, part of the semi-tribal northwest area of Darra Adam Khel about 140 kilometers (90 miles) west of the Pakistani capital Islamabad. AFP reporter said the force of the explosion reduced the mosque to a pile of rubble. Houses near the mosque were also damaged, including that of Wali Mohammad, the leader of a local pro-government militia that had clashed repeatedly with local Taliban militants until reportedly cutting a deal earlier this year. Although the Taliban denied responsibility, a local elder blamed the militia and suggested it could have been acting to avenge a pro-government militia set up to thwart the militants. Friday's bombing was the deadliest in Pakistan since a suicide attacker slaughtered 60 people at a Shiite Muslim rally in the southwestern city of Quetta on September 3.Suicide Bomb Destroys Pakistani Mosque Killing 50
