PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber targeting members of an anti-Taliban militia blew himself up during funeral prayers in Lower Dir on Thursday, killing 26 people and wounding 63 others, police said.
The attacker struck as mourners were preparing for prayers being held in open ground near corn fields in Jandol town in the district of Lower Dir, 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Swat Valley.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday's attack.
"The death toll has risen to 26 with 63 wounded in the attack," said senior police official Salim Khan Marwat, adding that the bomber targeted members of a state-sponsored anti-Taliban militia operating in the area.
He said the bomber's head had been retrieved from the scene and indicated that the attacker, who had hidden in the nearby fields, was in his late teens.
"It was a suicide attack. A bomber came on foot and blew himself up in the middle of people as they were about to start prayers."
Local senior police official Akhtar Hayat Gandapur said there were more than 100 people attending the funeral.
The owner of a medical store in Jandol described scenes of bloody devastation following the explosion.
"I could see pools of blood everywhere on the ground with pieces of flesh... lying on the ground," said store owner Zahoor Khan.
"There were mutilated bodies everywhere... People were collecting the remains of the dead in bed sheets and these scenes were very disturbing."
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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