Dozens killed in Pakistan sports ground attack

At least 25 people were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a volleyball tournament in Pakistan today.

The blast was the latest to hit the country since the army launched a military offensive against the Taliban in the South Waziristan tribal region.

The operation has provoked reprisal attacks that have killed more than 500 people since October.

Police said today’s bombing in Lakki Marwat city, not far from South Waziristan, was possible retaliation for local residents’ efforts to keep militants out of the area.

“The locality has been a hub of militants. Locals set up a militia and expelled the militants from this area. This attack seems to be reaction to their expulsion,” local police chief Ayub Khan said.

He said the bomber drove onto the field, which lies in a congested neighbourhood, during the volleyball contest.

Meanwhile a US missile struck a car carrying suspected militants in North Waziristan tribal region, killing three men, the second such strike in less than a day.

The strikes are part of the US campaign to eliminate top militant targets that use Pakistan as a safe haven to plan attacks in neighbouring Afghanistan and on the West.

Karachi, the country’s largest city, came to a virtual standstill today after religious and political leaders called for a general strike to protest over a bombing on Monday that killed 44 people and subsequent riots.

The city’s major markets, stores and business centres were closed, along with financial institutions that had already planned to shut because of New Year’s Day.

The attack occurred in the midst of a procession of minority Shiite Muslims during the Islamic holy month of Muharram. Afterward, angry protesters went on a rampage, setting fires to about 2,000 stores that took three days to completely put out.

Elsewhere in the country’s north-west, a roadside bomb exploded near a car in the Bajur tribal region, killing an anti-Taliban tribal elder and five of his family.

Bajur was the focus of a 2008-09 army offensive but still suffers some militant violence. Tribal leaders who support the government against the Taliban are frequent targets of attacks.