Grieving tribesmen bury dead after jirga suicide blast

Tribesmen on Monday buried the body of the 47 people killed in a suicide bomb attack at a meeting of tribal elders (jirga) discussing how to tackle al Qaeda and Taliban militants.
Authorities declared three days of mourning in the northwestern town of Darra Adam Khel after Sunday’s attack, and all shops, schools and even the area’s famed illegal arms bazaar were shut down, officials and witnesses said.
“There has never been such a tragedy in the history of Darra Adam Khel. We had to bury some without hands or legs, or in some cases there were only pieces of flesh and bones,” local school teacher Tahir Khan told AFP. Clerics used mosque loudspeakers to announce one funeral after another and burials continued late into the night after the blast in Zarghon village, just outside Darra Adam Khel, residents said. People with spades and pickaxes were seen filing to the local cemetery for the final funerals on Monday morning, they said.
Residents said that of the five major ethnic Pashtun tribes that gathered for Sunday’s ill-fated “peace meeting,” not one was left without casualties to mourn.
“We have declared a three-day mourning period in the area,” local administration official Saleem Gandapur told AFP.
Based on information from relatives, the death toll had risen to 47, he said, adding: “There is a possibility that the final death toll may be higher as we are still compiling the data from the affected families.”
Groups of mourners visited bereaved families at their fortress-like mud and clay houses to offer prayers.
The remains of the suspected bomber including his severed head and legs have been sent to a hospital in the nearby city of Kohat for forensic tests, Gandapur said.
He said the bomber appeared to be 18 years old. Officials said he approached the meeting of hundreds of tribesmen on foot and blew himself up.
President Pervez Musharraf “strongly condemned” the suicide attack, saying it was an attempt to sabotage peace moves in the troubled region, state media reported.
Around 600 people have died across the northwest of the country in recent months in clashes between pro-Taliban militants and security forces and in a wave of suicide attacks blamed on the extremist rebels.