Update: 22 killed in Pakistan suicide bombing, forces 19 militants

As many as 22 tribal elders were killed and 50 others sustained injuries when a suicide bomber attacked an anti-militant meeting of a jirga (tribal council) Thursday afternoon in Salarzai area of the restive Bajaur region of Pakistan.

On the other hand, military officials said 19 militants were killed when Pakistan Air Force jetfighters and military gunship choppers later heavily bombarded militant hideouts in various parts of Mamond area of Bajaur.

According to one of the jirga members, a young man aged between 15 and 20 years entered the jirga and blew himself up in middle of the elders.

The elders, he said, were holding a meeting at an open place 25 kilometres north of Khar, headquarters of Bajaur. “A young boy who had just disembarked from a car came towards the jirga and sat down near an elder and then blew himself up,” remarked the tribal elder.

The jirga member said that nine tribal chieftains died on the spot and over 62 others sustained serious injuries. However, 12 of the injured succumbed to their injuries.

A purported militant outfit, Karwan-e-Niamatullah, a splinter group of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan operating in Salarzai tehsil of Bajaur, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Earlier reports said at least eight persons were reportedly killed and dozens injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a meeting of tribal council (Jirga) in Salarzai area of restive Bajaur tribal region of Pakistan on Thursday.

Earlier, a television channel reported that several persons were feared killed in a remote-controlled bomb blast in Pakistan's restive Bajaur tribal region on Thursday.