Suicide bomber on motorcycle kills 48, wounds around 80 in Pakistani tribal area

Motorcycle bomber kills at least 48 in Pakistan

KHAR, Pakistan — A suicide bomber on a motorcycle struck outside a government office Friday in a tribal region where Pakistan’s army has fought the Taliban, killing at least 48 people and wounding around 80, officials said.

The attack indicated that militants remain a potent force in Pakistan’s tribal belt, which borders Afghanistan, despite army offensives. The U.S. has praised Pakistan for taking on Islamist extremists that use the tribal region to plan attacks on Western troops across the border, but the militants have often retaliated on Pakistani soil.

The bomber detonated his explosives near the Yakaghund village office of a top administrator of the Mohmand tribal region, Rasool Khan.

Khan, who was in his office at the time, escaped unharmed. He said some 70 to 80 shops in the area were damaged or destroyed by the powerful blast. A prison building also was damaged, and some 28 prisoners — ordinary criminals, not militants — had apparently escaped, the administrator said.

The attacker was on a motorcycle and trying to gain entry to the office when he was stopped and detonated the bomb, government official Meraj Din said. He put the death toll at 48, and other officials said at least 80 people were wounded.

Footage from the area showed dozens of men searching through piles of yellow brick and mud rubble in search of survivors.

“After the blast, I saw destruction. I saw bodies everywhere. I saw the injured crying for help,” security official Esa Khan told The Associated Press in the main northwest city of Peshawar, where he helped escort some of the wounded to a hospital.

Abdul Wadood, 19, was sitting in a vehicle nearby when the attack happened.

“I only heard the deafening blast and lost consciousness,” he said, while being treated for head and arm wounds in Peshawar. “I found myself on a hospital bed after opening my eyes.

“I think those who planned or carried out this attack are not humans.”

Mohmand is one of several areas in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt where Taliban and al-Qaida are believed to be hiding. The Pakistani army has carried out operations in Mohmand, but it has been unable to extirpate the militants.

Information from Mohmand is difficult to verify independently because access to the area is heavily restricted.

Khan reported from Peshawar. Associated Press Writer Munir Ahmed contributed to this report from Islamabad.