Teenage suicide bomber kills 60 in Pakistani mosque

PESHAWAR/ISLAMABAD. November 6. KAZINFORM Scores of worshippers were killed after a teenage suicide bomber struck a mosque in northwest Pakistan during prayers Friday, officials said. The bombing was believed to have been targeted at an anti-Taleban activist, Kazinform refers to Arab News.

The explosion occurred in Darra Adam Khel, an area near Pakistan's tribal regions where Taleban-led militants have been active.

Commissioner Kohat Khalid Omarzai said the explosion was so strong that it caused the roof Atari Mosque to collapse, killing at least 60 people and injuring more than a hundred others.

"Anti-state elements have carried out attack on mosque. We were expecting such attacks because military operations by Frontier Corps and Pakistan Army are going on in Orakzai agency," Omarzai told reporters.

Omarzai said "a young boy of hardly 17" was identified as the suicide bomber.

"We are fighting 3rd world war. Peace in Afghanistan alone can bring peace in Pakistan," said Senior Minister Bahir Bilour of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhawa told journalists in Peshawar. "We cannot give up to a few militants."

Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani strongly condemned the brutal killing of innocent "Namazee" and denounced the militants for having no regard for any religion or creed. He added that they are "pursuing their own agenda which is based on self-centered ideas and dogmas."

"They are surely the enemies of the state and the people," Geelani said in a press statement.

He said the fight against these militants "will continue till their complete elimination." He appealed to the people to keep watch on such elements and help the government in its drive to root out this cancer form our society.

Geelani also offered his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and prayed to grant them courage to bear this irreparable loss with courage and forbearance.

The blast was the latest in a series of attacks at mosques and Sufi shrines in Pakistan, and underscored the relentless security challenge to a nation where militants have thrived despite US-supported army offensives against them.

People in private vehicles rushed the wounded to hospitals in Peshawar, the main city in the northwest, TV footage showed. A woman was beating her head, while two elderly men in blood-soaked clothes lay in a hospital corridor.

Islamist militants have frequently targeted tribal leaders who have taken stands against them.

At least 50 people died, while 80 others were wounded, said Shahid Ullah, a local official.

Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain called the militants "beasts" that are lashing out at Pakistan's crackdown against them, Kazinform cites Arab News. See www.arabnews.com for full version.