At least 25 people were wounded on Thursday in a suicide attack that targeted a pro-government cleric in Pakistan's Khyber tribal district that borders Afghanistan, officials said, according to dpa. The bomber struck when Haji Namdar was attending a religious ceremony at an Islamic seminary near Bara, 20 kilometres from Peshawar. "The attacker detonated the explosives when stopped at the entrance of the centre, injuring around 25 people," an official in the local administration said. Namdar escaped the attack unharmed. Eight of the 21 people moved to various hospitals in Peshawar were said to be in critical condition. The bomber died in the explosion. Namdar has been formerly affiliated with pro-Taliban militants in Khyber Agency and was reportedly providing them with sanctuaries and arms as they targeted convoys heading towards Afghanistan with supplies for NATO forces. Several dozen trucks and oil tankers have been blown up over the last 12 months in the region. However, recently Namdar defected and helped the security forces in eliminating Taliban hideouts from the area and arresting several of them last week, a report in Hong Kong based Asia Time Online said on April 26. After ending ties with militants, Namdar started to openly challenge them. He announced on a local radio station that Taliban commanders should surrender or face a "massacre." Namdar said that he had the full weight of the security forces behind him, and he did not fear any suicide attack, the report quoted him as saying. Pakistan's tribal areas are believed to be safe havens for al- Qaeda and Taliban fighters who fled to the area in 2001 after US-led invasion of Afghanistan. Initially, focusing on cross border attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan, the militants turned inside and carried out dozens of suicide attacks across Pakistan, killing more than 1,000 people over the past 14 months. Pakistani government last month opened peace talks with the rebels. But the process halted on Monday when the militants announced to suspend the negations saying the authorities were not meeting their demand of troops' withdrawal from the tribal district of South Waziristan. The attack in Khyber district was the first suicide bombing since the suspension of the talks.
