What is going in Pakistan?

[Somaliman50]

A bomb has exploded at a mosque near the town of Jamrud in the Khyber agency in north-west Pakistan, killing at least 48 people, officials say.

The top administrator in the Khyber region, Tariq Hayat, said he feared the death toll could rise to 70.

Officials say the attack was a suicide bombing and the mosque has collapsed.

North-west Pakistan has witnessed a number of suicide attacks linked to the Taleban insurgency and also to the Shia-Sunni sectarian divide.

The attack in the village of Baghiani, about 30km (20 miles) from the Afghan border, took place as Friday prayers were beginning.

More than 70 people have been hurt.

Rescuers are at the scene digging through the rubble for survivors, Bakhtiar Khan, a local government official, told Associated Press news agency.

The mosque was next to a tribal police checkpoint, says the BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad, and was crowded with about 250 worshippers, including many police.



Television pictures showed that the mosque had been blown to pieces.

Pakistan's security officials have recently concentrated forces in the Khyber region, and especially the Jamrud area, to fight militants attacking convoys carrying supplies for the Nato forces in Afghanistan.

Some reports say the operations have been coordinated by US intelligence officials. Security forces say they have captured or killed several al-Qaeda members in the operations.

There have also been disputes between local tribal militias, says our correspondent.

On Thursday, at least 10 people were killed in a suicide bombing in Jandola in South Waziristan.

That attack, at a restaurant, was blamed on rivalry between militant factions.

Officials said a group of militants opposed to Pakistan's top Taleban commander had been in the restaurant.

At least 25 people were killed last month in a suicide bomb attack on a funeral procession in Dera Ismail Khan, a town in North-West Frontier Province, close to the semi-autonomous tribal area.

The bomber targeted the funeral of a Shia Muslim cleric who had been gunned down the day before.

The town has a history of sectarian violence between its Sunni and Shia Muslim communities.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7967594.stm

[Somaliman50]

These groups that commit these acts are more of a danger than anybody thought. Huge bombings in Pakistan have been so common that it is nowadays seen as ordinary and usual. Heck its more threatening there than in Somalia.