Peshawar: A bomb blast killed around 40 worshippers attending Friday prayers at a mosque in a remote area of northwest Pakistan, a senior official in the area said.
The explosion took place on the hilly outskirts of Dir Bala town in Upper Dir, a district bordering a region where the military has been pressing an offensive against Taliban militants for six weeks.
"The death toll is 40. We have no idea as yet how many have been wounded," said Atif-ur- Rehman, the senior-most government administrator in the Upper Dir district of North West Frontier Province.
The local police chief in Dir Bala said initially that four people had been killed and 30 wounded in the blast, but had warned that the casualty numbers were likely to go up.
On March 27, a suicide bomber attacked a packed mosque in Jamrud, also in northwest Pakistan, at prayer time, killing about 50 people.