File Photo. AFP
Another 27 people injured, with at least eight children among the deceased.
The death toll from a Taliban suicide bomb attack on a mosque in Mohmand Agency has risen to 36, including eight children, officials said on Sunday.
The Friday attack targeted a mosque in the tribal district bordering Afghanistan where the Pakistan Army has been fighting Taliban militants.
“We have now compiled a list of victims of the blast which includes 36 dead and 27 injured. At least eight children below the age of 10 are among the dead,” said Naveed Akbar, deputy chief of the Mohmand tribal district administration. “Many children were hit in the blast because they were praying in the last rows in the mosque where the bomber struck,” Akbar said.
The bomber came in as Friday prayers were in progress and blew himself up in the main hall. A curfew has been imposed in the area since the bombing.
Taliban faction Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was carried out to avenge the deaths of 13 of its members and arrests of others by a local vigilante force in 2009.
Meanwhile three people were killed in the outskirts of Peshawar on Sunday when four motorbike gunmen sprayed a van with bullets. Ahrar also claimed responsibility for this attack, telling journalists in an email they had killed three soldiers. But officials said they were still checking the identity of the deceased.