PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN — A suicide bomber killed at least 42 people Sunday at a meeting called by tribal elders to deal with rising Taliban militancy in Pakistan's volatile northwest, authorities said.
Dozens of people were wounded in the blast, the third in three days in the North-West Frontier Province, a rugged and largely lawless region where Pakistani security forces are waging an increasingly deadly fight against armed Taliban and Al Qaeda supporters.
The series of attacks, in which more than 80 have been killed, underscore the grave security and political challenges the country faces as the opposition parties that won parliamentary elections last month grapple with the task of forming a new government.
Hundreds of leaders representing five tribes had assembled Sunday morning on an open plain in the town of Dara Adam Khel, about 20 miles south of the provincial capital, Peshawar, to plot a strategy to combat militants in their area. Witnesses said that the gathering, known as a jirga, finished about 11 a.m., with an estimated 200 men staying behind to work out the details of a plan to establish a volunteer militia.
About half an hour later, a suicide attacker detonated his explosives in their midst, authorities said.
TV footage showed shoes, caps and blood scattered around the site of the blast. Hospitals were overwhelmed with casualties, which officials Sunday night said had reached at least 42 dead and 53 injured.
Residents identified the bomber as a teenager from Dara Adam Khel, a town known as a hotbed of illegal gun manufacturing. It was also the site of fierce fighting in January between militants and security forces, in which scores died.
The bombing was the second major attack within days to kill more than three dozen people at once. On Friday, a suicide bomber struck at a high school in the province's scenic Swat valley where mourners had gathered for the funeral of a high-ranking police officer. At least 40 people died in that attack, which came despite official claims to have pacified the insurgency in the valley.
On Saturday, two people died in a bombing in Bajaur, also in the troubled northwest, in Pakistan's tribal belt.
The attacks show an increasing willingness by militants to target civilians. Previously, they had directed most attacks against Pakistani police and military personnel.
