Seven people were killed in a suicide bombing that targeted a wedding ceremony in Pakistan near the Afghan border, as the country struggles to contain a growing wave of militant attacks.
A Pakistani police official, Muhammad Adnan, said on Saturday that the attack struck a building hosting members of a peace committee during a wedding on Friday in the district of Dera Ismail Khan, in north-western Pakistan. The comments were reported by Reuters.
The peace committee is made up of local residents and tribal elders and receives support from the government in Islamabad as part of efforts to counter militant groups operating along the Afghan border.
Adnan said that four of the victims, who were among about 12 people wounded in the attack, died later in hospital. Three other deaths were confirmed on Friday.
No group has formally claimed responsibility for the bombing. However, the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, has previously labelled members of peace committees as traitors. The group operates on both sides of the Afghan border.
The Pakistani Taliban is an umbrella organization comprising several Sunni militant factions that have been fighting the Pakistani state since 1997, with the stated aim of replacing the country’s political system with its own hardline interpretation of Islamic law.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban of allowing Pakistani militants to plan attacks from Afghan territory. Authorities in Kabul deny the allegation, saying the insurgency is an internal security issue for Pakistan.
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