Pakistan wedding suicide bombing kills seven near Afghan border

A suicide bombing at a wedding in north-western Pakistan has killed seven people, police said, in the latest attack to hit the country’s restive border regions with Afghanistan.

The blast took place on Friday (23 January) in Dera Ismail Khan when a bomber detonated explosives inside a building hosting a wedding ceremony attended by members of a local peace committee.

Police said four of those wounded later died in hospital, taking the death toll to seven. Nearly a dozen people were injured, according to police official Muhammad Adnan.

Three deaths had been confirmed on the day of the attack.

Peace committees, made up of local residents and elders, are supported by the government in Islamabad as part of efforts to counter Islamist militancy in Pakistan’s border areas.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, operates on both sides of the Afghan border and has repeatedly labelled peace committee members as traitors, targeting them in previous attacks.

Formed in 2007, the group is an umbrella organisation of several Sunni militant factions and has been fighting the Pakistani state while seeking to impose its own interpretation of Islamic law.

Islamabad has accused the Afghan Taliban of allowing the Pakistani Taliban to plan attacks from Afghan territory.

The authorities in Kabul deny the allegation, saying the violence stems from Pakistan’s domestic issues.

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