A suicide bomber killed at least 30 people and wounded 40 attending
Friday prayers at a mosque in Pakistan's northwest, violence that
came as the country's leaders urged a visiting U.S. envoy for more
aid to stave off Taliban-led militancy.
The attack also occurred as the Pakistani army said it had made
more gains in the nearby Swat Valley, an operation that the army
chief said had "decisively turned" in the military's favor.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast at the
Sunni Muslim mosque in the Haya Gai area of Upper Dir, a rough and
tumble district next to Swat.
Police said a man wearing an explosive vest entered the mosque but
was recognized by some worshippers as a stranger. When they
confronted the man, he blew himself up, said Atlass Khan, a police
official in Upper Dir.
Local police Chief Ejaz Ahmad said the confirmed death toll was 30,
but "there are more body parts, which may make another four to six
bodies" and the final tally could reach 40. Another 40 were
wounded, some critically, Ahmad told The Associated Press by
phone.
Pakistani leaders insist they are serious about wiping out
militancy in the northwest, especially in the Swat Valley, a
one-time tourist haven that the Taliban took over in the past two
years. Washington backs the operation, seeing it as a test of
Pakistan's resolve to beat al-Qaida and Taliban militants
implicated in attacks on Western forces in neighboring
Afghanistan.
But the generally broad public support in Pakistan for the
operation could falter if militant violence spikes in reaction or
if the government fails to successfully resettle some 3 million
refugees from the fighting.
There already have been attacks in Peshawar and Lahore that
officials say were revenge by the militants for Swat.
Atif-ur-Rehman, a top official in Upper Dir's government, blamed
the Taliban for the latest attack.
"It is obvious. They are Taliban," he told the AP. "We can say it
seems to be a reaction to the offensive in Swat."
Also Friday, four soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in South
Waziristan, according to two intelligence officials who spoke on
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to
the media.
South Waziristan is a tribal region bordering Afghanistan that some
suspect will be the next site of Pakistani military action against
the Taliban. The military insists the Taliban are attacking troops
there to distract the army from Swat.
Many of civilians displaced from the Swat offensive have been
impatient to return home.
An AP reporter saw hundreds of Swat residents at Got Koto, an area
just outside the valley, on Friday. The residents had heard reports
the government would lift a curfew in the main town of Mingora to
let them go back. But security forces on a main road stopped them,
saying they could not allow civilians back in yet.
"I want nothing from the government. I only want that we should be
allowed to go back to our Mingora city," said Dilawar Khan, 40, as
his four children and two wives stood by him under the shade of a
tree. Khan and his family had been staying at a relief camp in
Mardan.
Zubayda Bibi, one of the wives, complained about conditions at the
camps. "We can no longer sit at the camps where there is only dust,
diseases and heat," she said. Even if damaged, "home is better than
anything."
The army launched the Swat offensive about month ago after
militants undermined a peace deal by infiltrating a neighboring
district just 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the capital,
Islamabad.
The offensive has also covered the areas of Buner and Lower
Dir.
About 160,000 of the displaced Pakistanis are now living in relief
camps. The U.S. has pledged $110 million to help the refugees and
U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke this week announced plans for
$200 million more.
In a meeting with Holbrooke on Friday, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza
Gilani asked that the U.S. write off Pakistan's debt, according to
a statement from Gilani's office.
Holbrooke did not directly address the request in a news conference
Friday, but said he would meet Treasury and State Department
officials when he returns to Washington "to see what additional
things we can do to assist Pakistan in terms of its IMF
obligations, its World Bank obligations and its extraordinarily
difficult economic situation."
Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said this week that major
population centers and roads leading to the valley were rid of
Taliban resistance. But he said security forces were still hunting
top Taliban commanders and that isolated incidents of violence
would likely continue.
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Associated Press writers Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, and
Munir Ahmad, Asif Shahzad and Ashraf Khan in Islamabad contributed
to this report.
