A northwest Pakistani village that tried to resist Taliban
infiltration mourned on Saturday the victims of an apparent revenge
suicide bombing that killed 96 residents during a volleyball
game.
The attack on the outskirts of Lakki Marwat city was one of the
deadliest in recent Pakistani history and sent a bloody New Year's
message to Pakistanis who dare take on the armed Islamist
extremists. As villagers in Shah Hasan Khel held funeral services
and rescuers searched rubble for more bodies, many in the area were
too terrified to speculate on who staged the assault.
The suicide bomber detonated some 550 pounds (250 kilograms) of
high-intensity explosives on the crowded field in the village
during a volleyball tournament held Friday near a meeting of
anti-Taliban elders. The elders, who had helped set up an
anti-Taliban militia in the area, were probably the actual target,
police said.
Lakki Marwat district is near South Waziristan, a tribal region
where the army has been battling the Pakistani Taliban since
October.
The military operation was undertaken with the backing of the U.S.,
which is eager for Pakistan to free its tribal belt of militants
believed to be involved in attacks on Western troops in
Afghanistan. The offensive has provoked apparent reprisal attacks
that had already killed more than 500 people in Pakistan before
Friday's blast.
Militants have struck all across the nuclear-armed country, and
they appear increasingly willing to hit groups beyond security
forces. No group claimed responsibility for Friday's blast, but
that is not uncommon when many civilians are killed.
Across Pakistan's northwest, where the police force is thin,
underpaid and under-equipped, various tribes have taken security
into their own hands over the past two years by setting up citizen
militias to fend off the Taliban.
The government has encouraged such "lashkars," and in some areas
they have proven key to reducing militant activity.
Still, tribal leaders who face off with the militants do so at high
personal risk. Several suicide attacks have targeted meetings of
anti-Taliban elders, and militants also often go after individuals.
One reason militancy has spread in Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal
belt is because insurgents have slain dozens of tribal elders and
filled a power vacuum.
Shah Hasan Khel village "has been a hub of militants. Locals set up
a militia and expelled the militants from this area. This attack
seems to be reaction to their expulsion," local police Chief Ayub
Khan told reporters.
Footage on private TV channels showed villagers gathered Saturday
to say funeral prayers as covered bodies lay before them. Piles of
beige mud-bricks were nearby, what was left of some three dozen
homes toppled by the massive blast.
Mohammed Qayyum, 22, tried to avoid crying Saturday as he recounted
how his younger brother died when the explosion shook the
neighborhood. His family's house was damaged.
"After the blast, I heard cries, I saw dust, and I saw injured and
dead bodies," said Qayyum, who escaped injury. "See this rubble,
see these destroyed homes? Everybody was happy before the
explosion, but today we are mourning."
Like many others in the village that had prided itself on standing
up to the militants, Qayyum refused to comment when asked who he
thought was behind the bombing.
Mahmood Shah, a former security chief for Pakistan's tribal
regions, described the attack as a big blow to Pakistanis resisting
the Taliban, but noted past militant strikes had not stymied the
resistance.
"I'm sure that even with this blow it will not make much difference
to the resolve of the people to fight the war on terrorism with
their own means," Shah said.
In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton condemned
the attack.
"The United States will continue to stand with the people of
Pakistan in their efforts to chart their own future free from fear
and intimidation and will support their efforts to combat violent
extremism and bolster democracy," she said in a statement.
Authorities said about 300 people were on the field at the time of
Friday's blast and security had been provided for the games and the
tribal elders' meeting. Local administrator Asmatullah Khan said
Saturday that 90 bodies had been identified, while six remained
unknown. Thirty-six people were being treated at nearby medical
centers.
Eight children, six paramilitary troops and two police were among
the dead, police said.
Omar Gull, 35, a wounded paramilitary soldier, said the attacker
drove recklessly into the crowd and people were trying to figure
out what was happening when the explosives detonated. "It was then
chaos," he said.
The attack was one of the deadliest in years, and the second
deadliest since the latest wave of bloodshed began in October. A
car bomb killed 112 people at a crowded market in Peshawar on Oct.
28.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani vowed Saturday to
defeat militants, saying "the agenda of terrorists is to
destabilize the country, to create panic and spread fear."
___
Toosi reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmad
in Islamabad, Riaz Khan in Peshawar and Matthew Lee in Washington,
D.C., contributed to this report.