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Islamabad: At least 35 people were killed yesterday in a suicide blast near the border with Afghanistan.
It was the third such attack in the troubled North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in as many days, security officials said.
The bomber blew himself up among a group of people attending a tribal jirga near the town of Darra Adam Khel, where security forces and militants fought fierce battles earlier this year.
Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas confirmed the bombing but had no immediate information about casualties. Private television channels said up to 30 people were killed in the blast.
Hundreds of elders from five tribes had convened a traditional council to discuss "efforts to check growing Taliban activity in the area," according to local administration official Khalid Khan.
The bomber, believed to be a teenager, approached the meeting place on foot and blew himself up, the security official said, adding the head of the apparent attacker was recovered at the scene. Body parts were strewn across the site, Khan said.
Local resident Siraj Mohammad said that some clan leaders were among the dead, adding the jirga had been highly publicised, and local shops closed by tribal leaders for the occasion.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Jirga system
The tribal meeting came a day after NWFP chief minister-designate Amir Haider Hoti said he would try to curb militancy in tribal border districts through the traditional jirga system.
Hoti was nominated for a top position by the Awami National Party, a Pashtun political outfit that outvoted the fractured Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal alliance of religious parties in elections on February 18.
Security officials say Darra Adam Khel had recently become a stronghold of the banned extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which is said to have links to Al Qaida.
On Friday, a suicide bomber killed at least 44 people and injured up to 90 others during a funeral for a slain police officer in the town of Mingora in the northwestern Swat valley, a hotbed of militancy.
On Saturday, a suicide bomber rammed his car into a security vehicle in lawless Bajaur tribal district, killing a civilian, a security official and injuring 21 others, local officials said.
Last week, the army's top medical officer, Lieutenant General Mushtaq Baig, was killed in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi.
The military said that attack was likely in retaliation for army offensives against extremists operating in lawless areas near the border with Afghanistan.
Last year, about 2,000 people were killed in militant-related violence across the country, seen as the front line in the US-led "war on terror".
- With input from agencies
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