Suicide bomb attack on Pak mosque kills 48
A suicide bomber struck a crowded Pakistan mosque yesterday, killing 48 people and wounding more than 100 during Ramadan prayers, in the country's deadliest attack for three months.
Blood was splattered across the mosque's main hall and walls, while the building's doors and windows were destroyed and its ceiling fans mangled by the blast, according to an AFP reporter at the site.
Ball bearings used in the suicide vest were also scattered across the mosque in Jamrud town, 25 kilometres from Peshawar, the main city in the Khyber tribal district where much of the violence in Pakistan is concentrated.
The attack took place came as a US drone strike killed four militants in the northwestern tribal area of Pakistan which is awash with Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked networks and where US special forces killed Osama bin Laden on May 2.
More than 500 people had packed into the mosque and a senior official from the Khyber tribal district administration Sayed Ahmed Jan told AFP that the bomb had exploded seconds after the main prayer ended.
"The death toll has now risen to 48," top administration official Mutahar Zeb told AFP.
Earlier, deputy chief of the semi-autonomous administration Khalid Mumtaz Kundi had said 117 people were also wounded in the attack.
"It was a suicide attack. The bomber was wearing about 8-10 kg of explosives and was on foot. He detonated in the main prayer hall," he added.
Witness Gul Jamal Afridi, 46, a local truck driver told AFP that he had been thrown to the ground in the intensity of the blast.
"I saw smoke and fire. People were dying and crying for help, some were running in panic. I saw body parts and human flesh, it was horrible," he said.
Student Saqib Ullah, 24, said he had tried to help those lying near him after the bomb went off, but found most were already dead.
"I saw my uncle lying in a pool of blood. I ran towards him and picked him up to carry on my back, but he had already died," he said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but bombings blamed on Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked networks have killed more than 4,550 people since 2007, destabilising the nuclear-armed state.
Friday's bomb was the deadliest since May 13 when two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside a police training centre in a town about 30 kilometres north of Peshawar killing 98 people.
Elsewhere, two vehicles loaded with supplies for Nato troops stationed in Afghanistan, were damaged after a bomb planted underneath one of the vehicles went off in a terminal in Torkham, a tribal town bordering Afghanistan.
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