By Augustine Anthony
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself upamong mourners at a police funeral, killing at least 38 peoplein northwest Pakistan on Friday, intelligence officials said.
The attack in Swat district came days after the militarysaid it had cleared most areas in the mountainous region ofIslamist militants, who it had been battling there for months,aside from a few pockets of resistance.
"The blast occurred after people had offered prayers andpall bearers were carrying the coffin for a police salute,"said Deputy Superintendent Karamat Shah. He was among more than500 mourners at the funeral for a senior colleague in Swatdistrict.
The policeman being buried was one of three policemenkilled earlier on Friday when their van struck a roadside bombin another region of North West Frontier Province, whereTaliban and al Qaeda fighters are active.
Mohammad Khan, the senior doctor at the hospital in SaiduSharif in Swat, said 34 bodies had been received and more than50 people were being treated for wounds after the attack.
But intelligence officials said the death toll was at least38, and Shah said he saw some people carrying bodies ofrelatives home to prepare them for burial.
The funeral was being held after dusk in accordance withMuslim custom, and Shah said a power cut immediately after theblast added to confusion.
The earlier roadside bomb occurred near Bannu, a town atthe gateway to North Waziristan, a tribal region where al Qaedacells have become entrenched.
"The device targeted the police van, killing three peopleand critically wounding two," said Hamza Mehsud, chief ofpolice in Bannu district.
A missile, believed to have been fired by a U.S. pilotlessdrone, struck a house in North Waziristan on Thursday, killing13 suspected militants including some believed to be Arabs.
On Monday, the army's top medical officer was killed in asuicide bomb attack in the city of Rawalpindi. Thelieutenant-general was the most senior officer killed so far inthe conflict with al Qaeda inspired Islamist militants.
Over 450 people have been killed in militant-relatedviolence this year alone. A suicide bomb campaign targetingsecurity forces intensified after the army stormed Islamabad'sRed Mosque last July to crush a militant student movement.
The escalating violence has raised concern about thestability of the nuclear-armed state, as it passes through aperiod of political transition with doubts over how longPresident Pervez Musharraf can hold onto power after his allieslost a parliamentary election on February 18.
(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider and Zeeshan Haider,writing by Simon Cameron-Moore, editing by Myra MacDonald)
(For a Reuters blog about Pakistan please see:
http://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan )
