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Pakistan has probed Al-Qaeda links to a suicide bombing that killed 42 recruits at an army base near the Afghan border, as Britain and the United States expressed outrage over the attack.
A bomber disguised in a shawl ran onto a parade ground where some 200 recruits were gathered for morning drills and blew himself up at the Dargai training camp in the northwest of the country, witnesses said.
The attack was likely in retaliation for a missile strike late last month against a nearby religious school believed to be an Al-Qaeda training camp in North West Frontier Province, security officials said.
The United States deplored the attack, the deadliest since the Pakistan army was deployed in the restive tribal region about five years ago to hunt down Al-Qaeda militants.
“We condemn the suicide attack against an army training facility in Pakistan. We extend our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those killed and injured in this heinous attack,” US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
“We applaud the government of Pakistan's determination and resolve to fight against terror. We stand with the government and people of Pakistan in this struggle.”
British junior foreign minister Kim Howells said there could be “no justification” for the bombing which left body parts and bloodied clothes strewn across the parade ground.
“There can be absolutely no justification for this cowardly attack which has resulted in the deaths of so many,” he said.
Pakistan, along with Britain, has stood firm with the United States in US President George W. Bush's “war on terror” despite opposition from some tribal and religious leaders.
Security officials said they were exploring Al-Qaeda's possible involvement in Wednesday's attack in the Malakand tribal district, located near the Bajaur tribal area where 80 people were killed in the strike on the Islamic school.
Top military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP Wednesday's attack had “definite linkages to Bajaur where the army successfully destroyed a known training camp financed by Al-Qaeda.”
Sources close to the investigation said the bomber killed in the attack was accompanied by another person who fled. Sniffer dogs were used to pick up the trail of the fugitive.
Some officials said a hardline Islamic group close to Afghanistan's Taliban, the banned Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM), could be behind the army camp attack, which wounded more than 20 recruits, some of them critically.
The Pakistani government says the madrassa hit last month in Bajaur was being used by two wanted TNSM clerics, Maulvi Faqir and Maulvi Liaqat, as a training camp for Al-Qaeda militants.
Liaqat was killed in the October 30 strike and Faqir is still at large.
President Pervez Musharraf condemned Wednesday's attack and reiterated his government's “resolve and conviction to eliminate terrorism” from the country.
However the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of six hardline religious parties, called for Musharraf's resignation over the incident.
Senior MMA leader Khurshid Ahmad described the attack as “a very serious national calamity.”
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