http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/06/20096595617238308.html
Pakistan mosque blast kills scores
A minister and his family members were injured
when a parcel bomb exploded at his home [EPA]
At least 40 people are feared to have been killed in a bomb blast at a
mosque in northwest Pakistan.
The blast occurred in a village in Upper Dir district of the North West
Frontier Province (NWFP) while worshippers were attending Friday prayers.
Atif-ur-Rehman, a government administrator in Upper Dir, was quoted by
the Reuters news agency as saying: "Around 40 people are killed. We have no
idea as yet how many have been wounded."
Another administrator said the death toll was between 40 and 42.
Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad, the Pakistani
capital, said the blast appeared to have been caused by a lone suicide bomber.
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"The attack took place in a village near the border with Swat, in a
mosque which takes care of about 250 families that have settled in that
particular area," he reported.
Hyder said that the dead included 12 children and that the assailants
blocked the roads from the mosque, preventing the wounded being taken to
hospital.
"It must be remembered that in Lower Dir the Pakistan military has been
on the offensive [against the Taliban], and the government has been making no
secret of the fact that there are elements trying to destabilise Pakistan."
The latest blast is the ninth bomb attack in the country since the army
launched a major offensive against the Taliban in neighbouring Swat valley.
The operation is aimed at flushing out Taliban fighters from the region.
Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, was
in Islamabad on Friday to consult the country's leaders on what needs to be
done after confronting the Taliban in the Swat valley.
Elsewhere, a member of Pakistan's parliament and his family were wounded
on Friday when a parcel bomb exploded at his home in the southern city of
Karachi, police said.
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