Pakistani 'schoolboy' bomber kills 31 at army base

Almaty. February 10. Kazakhstan Today - A teenager dressed in a school uniform detonated a bomb in north-west Pakistan killing 31, Kazakhstan Today reports.

A suicide bomber has attacked an army facility in Pakistan's troubled north-west, killing at least 31 people and injuring 40 others, officials say, BBC News reported.

Police described the bomber, who struck in the city of Mardan, as a male teenager dressed in school uniform. He attacked as recruits conducted morning exercises.

The Mardan bombing points to the continuing ability of militants in the north-west to strike at high security locations. The use of a bomber in his late teens is not unusual. But the fact that he wore the uniform of a college located inside the cantonment, the city's enclosed military area, helped him slip past at least six security checkpoints before hitting his target.

The Taliban have been trying to launch an attack within the Mardan cantonment since 2008. In May that year, a suicide bomber blew himself up near a bakery in the cantonment after he failed to get through a police checkpoint.

In July 2010, a group of militants scaled the rear walls of the cantonment to launch a gun and bomb attack, but were beaten back by the police and troops.

The latest attack comes after a long lull, and days after the army launched an operation in the nearby Mohmand tribal region.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack on the Punjab Regiment Centre.

Mardan police official Abdullah Khan told the BBC that the teenage bomber had been wearing the uniform of a school located in the area, Aziz Bhatti College.

The bomber struck at 0800 (0300 GMT) as recruits were doing physical training on the parade ground, he said.

A bomb attack on the same centre in 2006 killed at least 20 soldiers.

The Punjab Regiment is one of Pakistan's most famous military units.

There has been an increasing use of teenage bombers across Pakistan, the BBC's Aleem Maqbool reports.

Pakistani troops have found whole camps in the north-west where children as young as 10 or 12 were being trained to become suicide attackers, our correspondent says.

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