Lakki Marwat death toll mounts to 93

LAKKI MARWAT: The death toll in Friday evening's suicide attack during a volleyball match in Lakki Marwat continues to rise, with 93 killed and more than 70 injured in the deadly blast, reported ARY NEWS on Saturday.

The bodies identified were sent to their native towns.

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed vehicle as fans gathered at a volleyball court to watch two local sides face off in the village of Shah Hasan Khan, in Bannu district, bordering Taliban stronghold South Waziristan.

The attack was one of the deadliest in recent Pakistani history. As local tribesmen prepared for funerals Saturday, rescuers were still searching for bodies trapped underneath rubble.

The suicide bomber detonated some 550 pounds (250 kilograms) of high-intensity explosives on the crowded field during the tournament held Friday near a meeting of anti-Taliban elders. The elders were probably the actual target, police said.

Eight children, six paramilitary troops and two police are among the dead.

Lakki Marwat is near South Waziristan, a tribal region where the army has been battling the Pakistani Taliban since October.

"The locality has been a hub of militants. Locals set up a militia and expelled the militants from this area. This attack seems to be reaction to their expulsion," local police Chief Ayub Khan told reporters.

In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton condemned the attack.

"The United States will continue to stand with the people of Pakistan in their efforts to chart their own future free from fear and intimidation and will support their efforts to combat violent extremism and bolster democracy," she said in a statement.

Authorities said that about 300 people were on the field at the time of Friday's blast and that security had been provided for the games and the tribal elders' meeting.

Omar Gull, 35, a wounded paramilitary soldier, said that the attacker drove recklessly into the crowd and that people were trying to figure out what was happening when the explosives detonated.

"It was then chaos," he said. "It was smoke, dust and cries."

The attack was the deadliest since a car bomb killed 112 people at a crowded market in Peshawar on Oct. 28.

Regional Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain reiterated the government's resolve to target militants wherever they may be, saying, "We need to be more on the offensive to fight them."