Pak suicide blasts claim over 65 lives

The explosions took place in the village of Yaka Ghund in the Mohmand tribal region, outside the offices of a senior Mohmand administrator, the police said. At least 112 people were injured.
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Authorities said one of the bombers was on a motorcycle, while the other detonated a Toyota Corolla sedan filled with explosives.

Pakistanis remove the body of a blast victim from the rubble following a suicide bomb attack in Mohmand district of the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.

The intended target remained unclear. A large crowd lining up for new national identity cards had gathered at government offices in Yaka Ghund's main bazaar, and the bazaar itself was filled with midmorning customers.

However, Pakistani television channels reported that members of a local lashkar, or anti-Taliban tribal militia, had been meeting in the vicinity when the blast occurred and may have been the intended target.

Munir Khan, a shopkeeper at the market, said his store was just a few yards from the blast site.

"It was a huge blast, and there was total destruction everywhere," Khan said. "I saw injured people on the ground and dead bodies burned beyond recognition."

Mohmand is one of several tribal regions along the Afghan border where Taliban and Al Qaeda militants continue to seek sanctuary.

The Pakistani army has launched offensives in several parts of northwest Pakistan including the Swat Valley, South Waziristan, Bajaur, Orakzai and Khyber in an attempt to uproot the insurgency and put an end to a wave of Taliban-engineered suicide bomb attacks and other terrorism acts that have ravaged the country in recent years.

The offensives, however, have failed to dismantle the insurgency.

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