A suicide bomber blew himself up on Sunday in a crowded market in northwestern Pakistan, killing an anti-Taliban mayor who had formed a militia to fight the militants and 11 other people, officials said.

A purported Taliban commander claimed responsibility for the bombing. The Taliban have carried out a series of attacks in recent weeks aimed at pressuring the government to abandon an offensive launched in mid-October in South Waziristan, the main Taliban and al-Qaeda sanctuary in the country.

The bombing, in the town of Adazai, about 16 km from the main northwestern city of Peshawar, killed the town’s mayor, Abdul Malik, and 11 other people, including a young girl, said Sahibzada Anis, the top official in Peshawar.

The suicide bomber hit as shoppers thronged a market where goats were being sold to celebrate the upcoming Eid. Twenty-five wounded people — several in critical condition — were rushed to a hospital, police officer Abdul Sattar Khan said.

Malik, who had once been a Taliban supporter, later switched sides and formed a local militia to help fight the militants. “Malik had survived several attacks on his life in the recent past, since he turned against the militants,” Anis told AP. “But today the militants have finally killed him.”

“Our local fighters carried out this attack,” the purported Taliban commander, who gave only one name, Omar, said by telephone from an undisclosed location. “He had set up a militia. He was supporting killings of our men. He was interfering in our matters.”

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