Twenty-five people died when a bomb targeting a militia opposed to the Pakistani Taliban exploded in a market close to the Afghan border, the deadliest blast in the country in several months.
The explosion hit vehicles being used by the militia in the Khyber region, according to local security officer Khan Dad Khan.
The army has supported the formation of anti-Taliban militias in north-west Pakistan, but the insurgents have ruthlessly attacked the groups over the last two years. Many of the country's bloodiest bombings have been against militia members or their families.
The blast, likely to have been detonated by remote control, wounded 24 other people, said local government official Iqbal Khan.
Islamist militants with links to al-Qaida have carried out hundreds of bombings in Pakistan since 2007, killing hundreds of soldiers, police, government officials and civilians.
The Pakistani army has carried out offensives against militants in their strongholds in tribally administered regions such as Khyber, with the violence triggering fears in the west that nuclear-armed Pakistan may be buckling under extremism.
However, the frequency of large-scale attacks outside of the north-west has decreased over the last 18 months. The last major bombing was in September close to the Swat Valley, when a suicide bomber attacked a funeral of a tribal elder opposed to the Taliban, killing 31 people.
taken from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/10/explosion-bus-pakistan-bomb
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