Death toll from Pakistan suicide attack reaches 90
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Death toll from a suicide attack in a remote village in Pakistan's northwest has reached 90, a police officer in the region said Saturday.
A group of three suicide bombers rammed their explosive-laden car into the wall of the volleyball ground in Lakki Marwat district in North West Frontier Province, on Friday, District Police Officer Ayub Khan said.
Up to 400 people were present in the volleyball ground to watch a local match when the bombers carried out the attack in small village Shah Hassan Khel.
Officials said the bombers wanted to attack members of a local peace committee who were holding meeting in a nearby mosque.
The peace committee had helped the security forces to expel the militants from the village.
Head of peace committee, Mushtaq Marwat, said that members of the committee had received threats from several Taliban commanders in the nearby North Waziristan tribal region. He said that the Taliban militants had warned the people to end contacts with the government.
Ayub Khan said that more injured died of wounds in several hospitals. He said that several serious injured were shifted to Peshawar, the provincial capital.
He said the rescue operation continued overnight and all the bodies and injured were pulled out of the rubbles.
The blast was so powerful that it destroyed several houses in the village, burying women and children under the debris.
Fire fighters were called from other cities to extinguish the blaze broke out after the deadly blast. Police said that up to 300 kilograms of explosives were used in the attack.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. But the police officer blamed Taliban militants for the attack.
Despite military operations against the militants in parts of tribal regions and other areas, the suicide network of the militants is still active and they regularly strike public places and attack security forces.
In their separate messages, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack and expressed profound grief over the loss of lives. They said the perpetrators of such heinous crime would not be spared.
