Blast at mosque in Pakistan kills 30

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — An attacker wearing an explosives vest blew himself up inside a packed mosque during Friday prayers, killing at least 30 and wounding 40 more in northwest Pakistan, officials said.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but a local government official blamed the Taliban and said it was probably retaliation for a Pakistani military offensive against militants in the Swat Valley region.

It was unclear whether any military figures or prominent anti-Taliban local officials were in attendance at the Sunni Muslim mosque in the village of Haya Gai in Upper Dir, a rough and tumble district next to Swat. The village is about 65 miles north of Peshawar, about 30 miles northwest of Mingora, the largest city in the Swat Valley.

The Taliban has threatened a campaign of revenge attacks for the offensive. Although most of the bombings have targeted security forces, militants have also targeted civilians — most recently, a marketplace blast in Peshawar that killed six civilians.

The motive for such attacks on civilians is rarely clear, but it could be partly an attempt to use violence and intimidation to weaken public support for the army’s operation.

Police said a man wearing an explosives vest entered the mosque but was recognized as a stranger by some worshippers. When they confronted the man, he blew himself up, said Atlass Khan, an Upper Dir police official.

“People tried to intercept him because he looked like an outsider, someone who does not belong to this area,” Khan told The Associated Press by phone.

Militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan have often killed scores of civilians in attacks directed anywhere that people gather, including mosques and funerals. On March 27, a suicide bomber blew up a packed mosque near the Afghan border during Friday prayers, killing 48 people and wounding scores more.

Police Chief Ejaz Ahmad said the confirmed death toll was 30, but the number was expected to increase because there were more body parts to be counted and some of the 40 wounded were in critical condition.

Atif-ur-Rehman, a top official in Upper Dir’s government, blamed the Taliban, though he said the investigation was in its early stages.

“It is obvious. They are Taliban,” he told AP. “We can say it seems to be a reaction to the offensive in Swat.”

Pakistan launched its Swat offensive in late April, after the Taliban violated a peace deal with the government that gave them control of the valley by advancing into nearby Buner district just 60 miles from Islamabad, the capital.

Washington strongly backs the operation and sees it as a test of Pakistan’s resolve to beat al-Qaida and Taliban militants implicated in attacks on Western forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

But the generally broad public support in Pakistan for the operation could falter if militant violence widens or if the government fails to successfully resettle some 3 million refugees from the fighting.