Suicide Bomber Kills 26 Funeral Mourners in Pakistan By ISMAIL KHAN

Suicide Bomber Kills 26 Funeral Mourners in Pakistan

By ISMAIL KHAN

Published: September 15, 201

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A funeral for a carpenter killed in a road accident near here turned into a massacre on Thursday when a suicide bomber struck the gathering of mourners, killing 26 of them and wounding at least 50, the police said. A hospital official said he expected the death toll to rise.

Even for a part of Pakistan known as a haven for the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, tribal feuding and general lawlessness, the bombing was considered a shock, and police officials were at loss to explain the motive.

Salim Marwat, the district police officer in the Lower Dir district, where the funeral was held, said the carpenter, Bakhat Khan, a local resident, “was an ordinary soul.”

Pakistani news accounts said about 200 people were at the funeral when a bearded man ran out of a field toward the crowd screaming “God is great!” and detonated a bomb strapped to his body. The funeral site was strewn with body parts and clothing, the reports said.

Wakil Muhammad, the medical superintendent of the district headquarters hospital, said that most of the wounded were in serious condition, and that he expected the death toll to rise.

Police officials said the carpenter was a member of the Mashwani tribe, which straddles the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and is generally known to be anti-Taliban, but was not a prominent figure whose relatives would necessarily be at risk from a Taliban attack.

Malik Zarin, a Mashwani tribal elder, was recently killed in a suicide bombing during an anti-Taliban meeting in the neighboring eastern Afghan province of Kunar.

“This seems to be the only link,” said one district police officer. “The deceased was from the same Mashwani tribe.
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