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Suicide bomber kills 34 in north-western Pakistan (UPDATE 2)

Other News Materials 9 March 2011 12:26 (UTC +04:00)
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan ( Pakistan Taliban) claimed the responsibility for Wednesday morning ' s suicide blast at a funeral that has so far reportedly claimed34 lives and injured more than 40 others in Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar
Suicide bomber kills 34 in north-western Pakistan (UPDATE 2)

previous news was posted at 11:10

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan ( Pakistan Taliban) claimed the responsibility for Wednesday morning ' s suicide blast at a funeral that has so far reportedly claimed 34 lives and injured more than 40 others in Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar, reportedXinhua according to local Urdu TV channel Geo.

A suicide bomber on Wednesday detonated his explosive during a funeral near Peshawar in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, killing at least 34 people and injuring dozens, a government official said, DPA reported.

The attack occurred when about 150 people were attending the funeral of the wife of a pro-government tribal leader in Adezai area, around 20 kilometer south-east of provincial capital Peshawar.

"It was a suicide attack," said Siraj Ahmad, a senior government official in Peshawar. "Thirty-four people are dead and 42 injured.

A witness told Geo television that the lone suicide bomber was about 35 to 40 years age and he shouted "God is great" before detonating the explosives.

Kamal Khan, a second witness, said the blast threw him on the ground. "When I got up I saw there were bodies lying everywhere."

Siraj Ahmad said the victims included members of a tribal militia that the locals had formed to expel Taliban militants from their area.

The suicide attack came a day after a car bomb near the office of the military's Inter-Services Intelligence agency killed 26 people and injured 131 in Faisalabad, a key industrial city in eastern province of Punjab.

A Taliban spokesman accepted responsibility for Tuesday's bombing.

Nasim Sadiq, the top government official in Faisalabad, said on Wednesday that around 200 kilograms of explosives were detonated by remote control.

"They had parked the vehicle near the compressor of a CNG (compressed natural gas) station and wanted to blow up the compressor," Sadiq said.

"Thank God, the compressor and 30 to 40 gas cylinders there did not explode. Otherwise the devastation would have been much bigger."

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