A suicide bomber killed at least 42 people Sunday at a meeting called by tribal elders to deal with rising Taliban militancy in Pakistan’s volatile northwest, authorities said.
Dozens of others were wounded in the blast, the third in three days in North-West Frontier province, a lawless region where Pakistani security forces are waging an increasingly deadly fight against armed Taliban and Al Qaeda supporters.
The series of attacks, in which more than 80 have been killed, underscores the grave security and political challenges facing the country as the opposition parties that won last month’s elections grapple with the task of forming a new government.
Hundreds of leaders representing five local tribes had assembled Sunday morning on an open plain in the town of Darra Adamkhel, about 20 miles south of the city of Peshawar, to plot a strategy to combat militants. Witnesses said the gathering, known as a jirga, finished at about 11 a.m. local time.
About half an hour later, an attacker blew himself up in the midst of the 200 or so men who were still there, authorities said.
Television footage showed shoes, caps and blood scattered around the site of the blast. Officials Sunday night said casualties included at least 42 dead and 53 injured.
The bombing was the second major attack within days. Friday, a suicide bomber struck the funeral service of a high-ranking police officer in the scenic Swat Valley. At least 40 people died.
On Saturday, two people died in a bombing in Bajur, also in the troubled northwest, in Pakistan’s tribal belt.
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