At least 42 people were killed and nearly double the number injured when a suicide bomber detonated himself at a World Food Programme distribution centre in the Bajaur tribal agency along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on Saturday when people were queuing up to collect emergency food rations. The incident took place in Khar, the main town of Bajaur where the Army had claimed success against terrorists. Reports from the tribal agency — which is out-of-bounds for the media — suggest that the suicide bomber was wearing a burqa, giving rise to considerable speculation of the attacker being a woman.
The terrorist first lobbed grenades into the crowd before detonating the bomb. According to the Political Tehsildar of the Bajaur Agency, Wasal Khan, 41 people were killed on the spot. Many of them were women and children. The critically injured were taken to Peshawar where better medical facilities are available.
This is not the first time that suicide bombers have struck at relief facilities for Internally Displaced Persons who were forced to move out of their native places because of the military operations against terrorists in the tribal agencies. Bajaur is one of the tribal agencies were people had begun returning to their damaged homes earlier this year.
On Friday, the Taliban launched simultaneous attacks on security personnel at five check points in adjoining Mohmand tribal agency. In the crossfire that lasted several hours, 11 Frontier Corps personnel and 24 terrorists were killed, according to official reports.
