A suicide bomber rammed a pickup truck loaded with explosives into a playground crowded with families and children watching a volleyball game in northwest Pakistan Friday.
Police and local officials said as many as 75 people had been killed, with scores wounded, making the New Year’s Day attack one of the deadliest of more than 20 suicide bombings carried out by militants since October.
The attack underscored the Taliban’s determination to prevent citizens from forming militias to keep the insurgents at bay as military operations disrupt their strongholds in the nearby tribal belt.
Local authorities said they had little doubt that the village, Shah Hassan Khel, was chosen because residents were forming a pro-government militia. In recent weeks, the militants had been threatening death to anyone who joined.
But as the bomber prepared to strike on Friday, he did not choose the most obvious target: A meeting underway of local leaders of the new militia.
Instead, he drove his double-cabin pickup truck into the middle of a nearby playground where teams were playing volleyball and detonated explosives so powerful that they collapsed homes surrounding the field.
“When we came out, there was a plume of smoke and dust,” said Gul Janan, a member of the pro-government militia, who, along with other dazed members bruised but not seriously hurt when their roof collapsed, emerged to find their village ravaged.
“Nothing was visible,” Mr. Janan said in a telephone interview. “It was a huge bombing.”
All of the victims were civilians, one local official said...
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