PESHAWAR: A Taliban suicide bomber attacked a funeral in northwest Pakistan Wednesday, killing 37 people in the latest in a string of Islamist militant attacks aimed at undermining Pakistan's US-backed government. The funeral was for the relative of a pro-government, ethnic Pashtun tribal elder near the northwestern city of Peshawar, top district administrator, Siraj Ahmed, told Reuters. The attacker struck as mourners were about to hold funeral prayers, officials and survivors said. “As we are readying for prayers, a boy wrapped in a shawl headed toward us. People shouted to the imam (prayer leader) to wait for him to join us but as he came close he blew himself up,” said witness Mehmood Shah said. A top provincial health official said 37 people had been killed and 52 wounded. The Pashtun elder whose relative was being buried, Hakeem Khan, was instrumental in raising a militia force, known as a lashkar, with the support of the government to fight militants. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility. “These lashkars are raised to create chaos instead of maintaining peace,” militant spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. “The lashkars and the army are fighting us at the behest of the Americans. We will continue attacks on them,” he said. It was not immediately clear if the Pashtun elder, Khan, had been killed or wounded in the explosion. Bloodied shoes and caps littered the ground where the attack took place as stunned survivors milled around or bundled the wounded into trucks and away to hospital, television images showed.
