By Zulfiqar Ali and Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times –
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A powerful car bomb tore through a crowded market in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 16 people in an attack that local authorities said targeted the offices of an anti-Taliban militia.
The blast occurred in Darra Adam Khel, a town on the edge of Pakistan’s volatile tribal region that is known as a major hub for illegal arms trafficking.
No one was in the militia’s office at the time of the attack. The dead and wounded were shoppers and merchants at a nearby bazaar, local officials said. At least 33 people were injured.
There were conflicting reports on whether the blast was detonated by a suicide bomber or by remote control.
Authorities said they suspected that the Pakistani Taliban, the insurgent group behind the assassination attempt last week on 14-year-old education rights campaigner Malala Yousafzai, was behind the bombing. A local Taliban spokesman denied any responsibility for the blast.
In 2010, the Pakistani Taliban dispatched a suicide bomber to a mosque in Darra Adam Khel, killing 65 worshipers. The Taliban has maintained a presence in the small town since 2008.
Malala remained in critical condition at a military hospital in Rawalpindi, though doctors say her condition has improved since the attack Tuesday. Two Taliban gunmen on a motorcycle boarded the school van that Malala was traveling in and shot her and two of her schoolmates. One of the girls is in critical condition. The other was not seriously hurt.
After the attack, Malala underwent successful surgery to remove a bullet that had struck her temple and lodged in her neck. Officials say she is still on a ventilator, but there is no indication that the teenager suffered any brain damage.
In recent days, there have been conflicting accounts of whether key arrests have been made in connection with the attack, with some officials telling local journalists that three or four people have been formally arrested, and others saying dozens of people have been detained for questioning only.
Authorities said they have yet to track down the two gunmen who carried out the attack or the Taliban commanders who masterminded it.
