By Augustine Anthony
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed at least 38people at a funeral of a policeman in the Swat district ofPakistan, days after the Pakistan army said it had begun tobring the mountainous region under control.
Deputy Superintendent Karamat Shah, who was among more than500 mourners at the funeral, said the bomber attacked on Fridayafter people had offered prayers for the policeman, one ofthree killed earlier in the day by a roadside bomb.
"Pall bearers were carrying the coffin for a policesalute," he said. Intelligence officials said at least 38people were killed and a local doctor said more than 50 werewounded.
Earlier this week the Pakistan army, which has beenbattling Islamist militants in the Swat region of northwestPakistan for months, said it had cleared most areas aside froma few pockets of resistance.
The attack on the funeral was part of an upsurge inviolence that has raised concern about the stability ofPakistan, less than two weeks after an election meant to bringthe country back to civilian-led democracy.
On Monday, the army's top medical officer was killed by asuicide bomber in the city of Rawalpindi. He was the mostsenior officer killed so far.
In Swat, 34 bodies were received in hospital and more than50 people were being treated for wounds after the attack on thefuneral, said senior doctor Mohammad Khan.
Deputy Superintendent Shah said he also saw people carryingbodies of relatives home to prepare them for burial.
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.
The bomb exploded near Bannu, a town at the gateway toNorth Waziristan, a tribal region where al Qaeda cells havebecome entrenched.
Hamza Mehsud, chief of police in Bannu district, said theroadside bomb targeted the police van, killing three andcritically wounding two.
The funeral of one of the policemen was being held in Swatafter dusk in accordance with Muslim custom, and Shah said apower cut immediately after the blast added to confusion.
On Thursday, a missile, believed to have been fired by aU.S. pilotless drone, struck a house in North Waziristan,killing 13 suspected militants including some believed to beArabs.
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.
(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)
