PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber killed 67 people Friday at a mosque frequented by tribal elders opposed to the Pakistani Taliban. Hours later, three people died in a grenade attack on another mosque associated with anti-Taliban militia. Friday's first attack happened at midday in the town of Darra Adam Khel, a militant stronghold which lies on the edge of Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal region. The bomber, who authorities said appeared to be a teenager, ran into the mosque where several hundred worshippers were gathered for Friday prayers. He detonated explosives around his waist. Survivors bundled the victims into cars and rushed them to hospitals in Peshawar, the main city in the northwest and an hour's drive away. At one hospital, a woman beat her head in grief while two elderly men in blood-soaked clothes lay in a corridor. “The blast tossed me up, then I fell down,” Mohammad Usman, a 32-year-old schoolteacher with wounds to his head and arms said from his hospital bed. “Later, it was just like a graveyard.” Local government official Shahidullah said tribesmen running an anti-Taliban militia often met at the mosque, but they were not there on this particular Friday. Another official, Saeed Khan, said 67 were killed and 100 others were wounded. GEO News TV reported that the Pakistani Taliban, an umbrella group of local militants based in the tribal region, claimed responsibility for Friday's attack. The Taliban's spokesmen did not immediately respond to calls from the AP seeking comment. Later Friday, three hand grenades exploded during evening prayers at a mosque in Peshawar's Badhber district, 22 kilometers from the first attack. Along with three dead, 24 people were wounded, said police official Ejaz Khan. Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that attack was a “reaction to the successes” of an anti-Taliban militia, known as a lashkar, in Badhber. “No police or government can be successful without the people's support. We need these lashkars. We will support them to eradicate terrorism,” said Hussain, whose only son was killed by militants earlier this year.
