40 killed in Pak mosque attack

Fourteen security personnel were injured in fighting over the past 24 hours.

At least 40 people were killed and dozens injured when a suicide bomber struck during Friday prayers at a crowded mosque in the restive Dir area of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province. The powerful blast occurred when over 200 people were present in the mosque at Hayagai Sherqi in Upper Dir district,witnesses said. Top district official Atif-ur-Rehman told reporters at least 40 people were killed and dozens injured.

Doctors described the condition of several of the injured as critical. This was the ninth bomb attack in Pakistan since the Army launched a campaign against the Taliban in Swat. Local residents said the attack targeted a community that had resisted the Taliban in recent times.

A police official in the district told state-run APP news agency that militants targeted the mosque as local residents had stopped the Taliban’s activities and barred their entry into the area. This had annoyed the militants,he said.

Witnesses said the suicide bomber detonated his explosives when some persons tried to prevent him from entering the mosque. The explosion damaged the mosque and destroyed 14 nearby shops. No group claimed responsibility for the attack,which coincided with US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke’s visit to Pakistan.

At news conference at the US Embassy here at the conclusion of his three-day visit to Pakistan,Holbrooke acknowledged that Pakistani troops have turned the corner in their operations against the Taliban and cleared several areas,including Mingora and Buner,of militants.

During a meeting with visiting Holbrooke,Prime Minister Gilani called upon Washington to write off his country’s debt to help the Government overcome “economic difficulties accentuated by the war on terror,growing crisis of internally displaced persons and the negative impact of the global recession.”

Meanwhile,Interior Minister Rehman Malik contradicted reports about the arrest of TNSM chief Sufi Muhammad. The TNSM had on Thursday claimed Sufi Muhammad had been arrested with two of his sons. Malik said the security forces had arrested some militant commanders and their deputies but Sufi Muhammad was not among them.