Suicide bomber kills 40 in Pak tribal area

By Shafqat Ali

with agency inputs

ISLAMABAD

Oct. 10: At least 40 people were killed and over 100 others injured when a suicide attacker blew himself during a jirga (tribal assembly) meeting in Orakzai Agency on Friday.

The jirga was underway in the Orakzai Agency area of Hadezai to hammer out strategy to cope up with the problems of militants, when the suicide attacker blew himself.

Local tribes, including 500 people, from Alizai tribe were in the jirga planning a strategy to flush out the militants from the area.

The explosion happened a day after a force of pro-government tribesmen destroy-ed two militant hideouts in the Orakzai district, one of Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous tribal regions, they said. "Initial reports from the area say that a bomber struck during a jirga meeting, killing at least 40 people and wounding dozens more," said a security official on condition of anonymity.

"The tribesmen blew up two hideouts of the militants a day earlier and it is possible this attack was in revenge for their actions," the official said.

The attack also came a day after Taliban militants abducted and beheaded four tribal elders in the insurgency-hit Bajaur region who had attended another pro-government meeting, officials said. Pakistan’s government has tried to enlist fiercely independent ethnic Pashtun tribesmen to back its military operations against Taliban and Al Qaeda extremists based near the Afghan frontier. Taliban militants have killed dozens of tribal elders they accuse of backing the government in recent years using roadside bombs, executions and, less frequently, suicide bombings. Pakistan’s Parliament, meanwhile, is discussing the rise of terrorism and Pakistan’s role in the US-led war on terror.

On Thursday, a suicide bomber attacked police headquarters in Islamabad wounding eight police officials.