Suicide bomber kills dozens in mosque attack

A SUICIDE bomber yesterday demolished a mosque packed with hundreds of worshippers attending prayers in Jamrud, near the Afghan border, killing at least 48 people and injuring scores more, in the bloodiest attack in Pakistan this year.

The bomber struck at the climax of the service, as the mosque leader was starting the communal prayer, witnesses said.

“As the prayer leader said ‘God is Great’, the bomb went off with a big bang,” said Nadir Shah, a local paramilitary solider attending the mosque. “I felt it was the end of everything. Sometime later when I opened my eyes, I was lying among dead bodies.”

The blast in the fabled Khyber Pass came hours before US President Barack Obama unveiled a revised strategy to “disrupt, defeat and dismantle” the al-Qaida terrorist organisation and the Taliban operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s north-west.

A government official accused Islamic militants of carrying out the bombing in revenge for a recent offensive aimed in part at protecting the major supply route for Nato and US troops in Afghanistan that passes in front of the mosque. Several of the dead were local security officers who were praying there, officials said.

“Residents of this area had co-operated and helped us a lot. These infidels had warned that they will take revenge,” said Tariq Hayat, the top administrator of the Khyber tribal region.

The bomber hit the mosque when about 250 people were attending prayers, said Hayat.

Television footage showed scores of residents and police officers digging frantically with their hands through the ruins of the mosque, whose roof collapsed in the explosion.